The great flood....

Well, I have not had the chance to blog in over a week. Thursday night, we had a sudden thunderstorm that dropped over 3 1/2 inches of rain in less than an hour. This amount of rain combined with the hard, dry ground made for a river across the back of our home. Our downstairs had water come in...luckily the carpet pad soaked it up. We had to pull up the downstairs carpet in the den and office and luckily our quick action saved it. With the help of my carpet installer and Will's construction crew, we are back to normal. My house was chaos for the past week but I am thankful we did not have to replace our flooring. We had new carpet pad put in on Tuesday. After the heavy rain Thursday night, Will and his crew came up to our house at 7am with big commerical size fans to dry everything out. We thought we would have to miss our trip to Texas, but decided to go ahead and go rather than sit around our mess of a house for four days. The crew has dug some trenches and cleaned our our clogged gutter piping underground. They plan to extend our piping further and with the added trenches, we can redirect the flow of rain away from the house permanently. We hope this never happens again! Thanks to everyone for your help and for thinking of us! We are finally back to normal!!! :)

Mom's Ministry Fall 2010!

Last week, we started back for Mom's Ministry class and I was so excited!!! We have a few new members so far this semester and all members returned from last year except one who returned to work full time. I really missed seeing these ladies each week over the summer. I love looking forward to Thursday mornings and our study each week. This is my 3rd year as Director of this women's study group at my church and I love doing it! I have a few people volunteering to lead studies this year too!

We are starting our fall semester off with "What Every Mom Needs" led by Elise Page.
I am always amazed at how God puts each study on my heart at the right time in my life. Sometimes He knows I need it before I even do!

A little bit about this study...
Remember when you had a life of your own? The hectic job of being a mom is fraught with sacrifices, fears, and uncertainties. But nothing offers greater rewards or more opportunities to enrich yourself than raising your kids. What Every Mom Needs shows us how being a great mom and a person in your own right go hand-in-hand. If you've ever wondered how to find time for friendships, how to lighten your workload, or how to go about rediscovering and developing yourself as an individual, What Every Mom Needs is for you.

I am so blessed to have this group of great friends to share all our trials and tribulations as moms together. Each week, we laugh together and sometimes cry together but we are always there for each other! Thanks ladies of Mom's Ministry for all your support! I love you all!!!

6 gallons of paint later...

And our house looks GREAT! Our walls in the living room, kitchen, entry way, hallway, and one wall in the dining room have been off white since we moved in. I have done all the other rooms myself but this amount of space and the high ceilings was just too much for me to take on myself. So I hired Jose, a painter recommended to me by three of my friends. He did a great job and was VERY reasonable. I even did the prep work myself, like taping off around the moldings (I never want to see a roll of blue tape AGAIN!!) but it was worth it cause it saved me $100. Jose and his two helpers were able to get the whole house done on Saturday. Now our white moldings really look white and "pop" from the warm khaki walls.

Here are some pictures...




Our moldings and doors look so white now!





And when Jose was painting the walls around our stairs, I snapped a picture...

Balancing a ladder on stairs and reaching to where the wall meets 16 ft celing....no thanks.

Ole for Jose!!!

The fireplace project

Last Friday night, I had a burst of energy and decided to take on a little project I had been wanting to do for awhile now....painting our fireplace mantel. It is not a real wood mantel but rather the builder just built the wall out and shaped it to look like one. I have always felt that the items on my mantel just look like they are "floating" since the mantel is the same color as the walls...off white. So I headed to Lowe's for a can of paint and a sponge brush.

Here's what $11 and a couple hours look like....

BEFORE


AFTER

WOW! What a difference, huh? Now it looks like I have a mantel. It really makes the fireplace "pop"! As you know, one thing leads to another, so this Saturday I have decided to paint the walls. It will be a nice khaki color, not too dark, but just enough color to warm up the room. Check the blog after the weekend to see the finished project!

New pics of the boys!

A few weeks ago, I had the boys pictures taken at Bedfords.
(and yes, I have the rights to use these photos on my blog.)

I had really been wanting good pictures of them together because I really only had a couple. I wanted some taken outside but it has just been too hot. So I thought we would try the studio at Bedfords...for only $29.95 even if the pics did not turn out, I would feel like I did not waste that much money. Well, I thought the pics turned out great!
Here are some of my favorites!

Love my cute boys!!!

First Day of First Grade!

Thursday was the first day of first grade for Christian! Unbelievable! Kindergarten went by WAY too fast for me, so if this is how fast the years fly by, then he will be in college before I know it!

The day before school started, we ended the summer with a snow cone!


It was Christian's first snow cone! I don't think I have had one since the days of Craig Shelley's snow cone trailer in the old Safeway parking lot in VB. ;)
YUMMY!

Open House was this past Tuesday. We went to his school to see his classroom and meet his teacher.


Christian was excited to be heading back to school!

He looks so big!

It seemed like just yesterday you were heading to your first day of preschool....

Heading to Tiny Tots preschool in 2008

Christian had a great first day of school! There are a couple kiddos from his kindergarten class in his first grade class, so that's nice. Plus, he saw some of his old friends on the playground.
He has already had homework and seems to be doing fine getting back in the swing of things!
So far, so good!
Now, Andrew struggled the first day when we dropped Christian off at school. He started crying as soon as Christian got out of the car. But when we got home, we played and he was distracted...

Andrew walking around with a pair of my shorts on his head. He looks like a little nun. ;)

No worries little Andrew! Big brother will be home every afternoon to play with you!!!

Pinnacle Promenade Art Mural

Back in the Spring, we made tiles for a fundraiser for the Seven Hills Homeless Shelter. These tiles were collected and displayed as a mural in the Pinnacle Hills Promenade food court.

Christian standing by his tile (right above his head) with his name and green hand print.

In the picture above, you can see Christian's green hand print and Andrew's blue handprint.
How neat that as they get older, we can stop by this mural and see how their little hands have grown!