May's Projects/Happenings 2010

May was a month of projects! 

Project #1  painting and installing laundry "room" cupboards 

(it's not a room though it's a indention of the hall, off the hall to the bathroom, so yes, guests have to walk past the laundry to go to the bathroom - not my favorite feature of the house, and it makes it hard to get a picture of it, but at least now the soap stuff can be out of sight in my new cupboards, along with cleaners and more!)

The Before

The After (for now anyways)

*the real after will have a new (matching and beautiful) washer and dryer with a beautiful counter over the top

project #2 the kitchen cabinets

the before (hard to tell the color in the picture, but it's a pinkish wash)

The After- now an antiqued white

by the way- this is one DIY project I don't recommentd unless your as crazy as I am

Oh the sanding!  I would be so happy to never ever ever touch a piece of sand paper again!!  everything had to be sanded, primed, painted, repainted, sanded on the edges, stained, sprayed with protective coating, resprayed with protective coating - and all of it twice for both sides of the doors.  Scott helped me remove the doors and sand the inside part and then I knew it was going to be my project from then on while he worked a ton of hours.  But oh the sanding, even with an electric sander, all the groves and stuff had to be done by hand, and it was awful and took forever!  After a few break downs (and begging, maybe even refusal to do it) I did get Scott to sand the last 10 doors for me.  It took 2 1/2 weeks cuz it takes time for coats to dry, and well during that time we also did project #3,4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. 

Project #3 Garden

we added a drip line in each garden bed to the sprinkler systerm system, each plant has it's own a emitter, and we don't have to think about watering :)  and we planted the garden- 19 tomatoe plants, 24 pepper plants (don't have a clue of what we are going to do with that many peppers!), potatoes, onions, corn, cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, peas, beans, and cilantro.

Project #4  Strawberry Mountain and "papering" the right side of the back yard

Ok, maybe it's more of a ridge, but it has heighth and a whole lot of pounds of dirt and boulders that we hauled (it's 25' long and between 3' and 5' wide)  Now look at all the black paper that still needs covered!  I bought Lowe's out of strawberry plants so it only has 27 plants for this season, but eventually it will be covered in strawberry plants.  The girls picked a cup full of ripe ones yesterday!

Project #5 Pulling weeds and mulch

The back terraces were full of crab grass this spring!  We shoveled and  p-u-l-l-e-d it all out (there 100' long and 5' wide- that's a lot of crab grass!), and hauled in two truck loads of mulch.  The flowers and I are much happier now! 

Project #6  planintg roses and flowers

I got 6 roses bushes for Mother's Day, wonderful (except for the required planting)!  and we planted other flowers too.

here's my first bloom of the season

Project #7  School Year Books

I don't like papers on the counter, and unfortunately, they bombared from everywhere.  For school papers, I empty their folder every day after school and put it into a folder I have for each of them in my "office kitchen cupboard."  At the end of the fall semester I do a quick go through and save my favorites and then again at the end of the year.  Then I made these binders to save my favorite pieces of work in. 

The beginning pages are scapbooked pages of the first day, class programs, parties, activities, field trips, class picture,  and any pictures I have of them in school. 

I really tried to write out all I could remember so we could always remember...

and then I printed a question sheet for Alyse and Lexi to fill out with questions about there school year

I typed out all my memories/thoughts on the year (I was amazed that I came up with 2 pages for each year)

and then I put pages of their work, art work, awards, and report cards...   

and yea, now it's all fun to look through and they can see how much they have progressed through out the year, and all those school papers are in one spot!  This project would have been much easier if I would have made the scrapbook pages through out the year, or even if I had done Alyse's 1st, or kindergarten books after the school year, but no, I just had the folders of work saved in a box.  So I did all 4 books together (and the same time as the other projects :)

project #8 school

I "went back to school" too!  I started a medical transcriptioning program April 20th.  It's a self-paced program that I have a year to complete.  With my nursing background, I thought it would be a lot easier than it is.  I do have a lot more knowledge than the average person going into this, but its still been very hard.  As a nurse, I didn't have to hear and then type out the names of every single medication out there (and know if they are generic or brand name to know whether to capitalize it).  It is doable though, it's just been interesting learning how to fit study time in.  I usually do it during nap time and then after the kids are in bed until I can't stay awake any longer!   This "project" suffered a lot through all my other projects.   I could earn a lot more as a nurse, but nursing hours are 12+ shifts (plus report, commute, etc.) and I can't bring my kids either :)  When Scott gets out of the AF and goes to school full time and works part time, I will need to supplement the income and I can do medical transciptioning from home, so that's why I'm doing this.  And after those years, my kids will all be in school, but the nursing shifts of 7a-7p don't exactly work with my family (not to mention days off school, kids home sick, summer break, etc) so this will be my part time career.

And of course we have 4 other perfectly adorable "projects" that we fed, taught, helped, cleaned up after, bathed, etc. all month long!

Other May Happenings...

Lexi's kindergarten program/graduation, it was very cute... even if Layla was running a fever and so did not want to be there!

I volunteered in Alyse and Lexi's classes the last day of school.  Alyse's class had a breakfast, presented their class play to other grades, and then played board games.  Lexi's class played bingo, made graduation caps, ate snacks and treats, and played games.  It was a great school year!

and Layla had a birthday, we were waiting for Noni's visit to celebrate, but I ended up making a cake because I just couldn't let the day go by with out notice!

and a Thank You gift I made for a friend who brought Lexi home everyday from school (so nice not to have to load up my llittle two)!

and a yummy orange cake that Scott made from scratch!  Yes, it was completely from scratch, Scott made it all by himself, and it was SO yummy!  (a Paula Dean recipe)

Oh, if only I could learn to do only one project at a time............

and that's month up until the 28th, but that begins a story for another day!