I'm a bad bad girl...or maybe just a busy busy girl

I am so sorry for not blogging any better than I have the past few months.  It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's that I've just been so darn busy!  We've had something going on every weekend since the first of April, and I'm sad to say that I just seem to be able to keep my head above water and have dropped anything that hasn't been a priority.

My house is proof of this.  I went into the bathroom the other day and really looked at the toilet.  It was filthy.  And I was ashamed of myself for letting it get in this state!  Needless to say, it got cleaned right then and there.  I haven't looked as closely at the tub...yet.  We've kept the carpet swept...somewhat...but my house does show a lack of care.

In our (my) defense, we've had two proms to get someone ready for.  Why she can't get herself ready, and why it takes her all.damn.day to get ready is beyond my comprehension, but I was roped into 'helping."  We also had one After Prom to work and build an obstacle course for.  (I'm using the Royal "WE" here.  Kev did the building.  I just helped him carry the darn thing in to the gym, set it up, and run the kids through it.)  I haven't willingly stayed up so late at night in years.  Getting to bed at 4 a.m. and waking up at 7:30 at the age of 49 is not as easy to do as it was when I was in my teens and 20's!

We've been to two auctions this spring.  We'd like to go to more, as several have come up with butchering equipment, but we've had other commitments and just haven't been able to go to them.  One we went to was a 2 day event.  The first day was the farm/workshop equipment.  The second day was the household stuff.  Kev had to work part of both days, but left me with instructions on what to bid on.  I bought him the back blade for the tractor he wanted.  I paid $30 more than what he wanted me to pay, but dang it...I felt that $30 was worth it!  He wasn't real happy with me when I told him I bought a 5' x 5' pile of cinder blocks for $2.50.  But, before we had them loaded, he had ideas of how to use them.  The $25 he spent of a huge pile of lumber was a steal.  In his pile were some 2 x 10 boards that were 20 foot long!  One of those boards usually runs $25!  And we are still kicking ourselves for not bidding on the pickup that sold for $1400.  We could have used it, and it was the steal of the day.  (Kev was gone and I didn't know if I should bid or not, so I didn't.  I should have, but I didn't.)

My only prize on the household items day was a pile of linens in which were hidden some nice big tea towels.  I wanted two table clothes, and the auctioneer bundled them all together with other...stuff.  I got what I wanted, and a whole lot more!  Some I tossed because it was junk, worn out and really stained.  The rest I washed up.  I've ironed some of it and the rest is still waiting for attention.  Anyone need aprons?  I have 6 or more now.  I also got some nice canning jars.  Not as many as I'd hoped for, but some.  And my Dad nicely bid on some bread pans for me.  They came with some pyrex baking pans.  I gave the baking dishes  to a friend and have found time to use the bread pans!

We've been busy attending track meets.  It's been an awful track season this year.  The cold days have out weighed the nice ones.  Poor Kat has struggled this year with pulled muscles and sore legs.  There are only nine girls out for track, so getting a good relay team together has been difficult.  Kat has done real well in 200 dash.  She's been running it in 27 seconds. Fast enough to place 4-6th.  She'd like to be able to qualify in it for State.  She could--if we'd have some decent weather!  She's also trying to qualify in the 400 m run.  I think she's a better 400 runner than a 200 runner, but we'll see!   Her 4 x 100 relay has struggled.  They've switched runners in and out all season.  I think the current group of girls is the fastest of the season but I'm not sure they are fast enough to qualify for State.  I really hope she makes it to State... We've been to State Volleyball, and Basketball this year, it would be nice to go in Track as well.

Mr. Andy has been working hard to finish up his Fire Science/EMT degree.  He graduated last weekend.  He's passed all of his Fire qualifications and is a Fireman II.  He's passed his EMT practical exam and is scheduled to take his written National EMT test next week.  Best news for Mom and Dad is that he's applied for two jobs!  Maybe we'll be empty-nesters someday after all!

Besides Andy graduating, we've got a niece graduating this weekend, and next year Miss Kat will.  The following year, my nephews will.  Gosh, I'm in the middle of buying Graduation gift season which will be followed by buying wedding gift season!

The downside of all this busyness is that we haven't had time to work outside on the garden...we've planted our spring veggies, but with the Topsy-turvy weather, who knows if anything will come up.  Top that off with no one being home to water the garden...who knows what my garden holds.  I'm hoping to be able to plant the rest of it next weekend...if we stay home long enough.

I did buy three new baby chicks!  I need to post about the girls again.  I need to clean out the chicken pen. It's on the list right after the house cleaning!

I've been working on my cross stitch some in the evenings.  I'm on the third page!  But I really haven't put much time in it since the first of April.  I don't know how much I will work on it this summer either.  I've made a commitment to get Miss Kat's album/scrapbook caught up.  I havent' touched it since we moved.  Since she'll be a very active Senior next year, I've got to get crackin on it.  And, I'm making another committment--to blog more often... stay tuned.

A quicky...

Some quick updates...

Miss Kat's basketball team took 3rd at the State Tournament!  They won the consolation game in the very last second.  It was just like an NCAA game!  The pressure, the excitement, the shouts of joy, the tears.  It was amazing!  I wasn't sure I'd get to go see the State games, but I was able to find plenty of help at work to cover and was able to attend every game.  Miss Kat doesn't plan on playing next year, so this was an exciting finish to her first and last season of High School Basketball.

We've had more snow in the month of March than we've had in the past two years!  Much needed moisture.  I'm ready for spring though.

Mr. Andrew is finishing up his Fire Science/EMT classes.  He's looking at potential jobs in Wichita and in Dodge City.  While I love him dearly, I think we will all be ready for him to move out and to start his life.  

Kev has been starting plants in the greenhouse.  We lost all but two of the tomatoes he started.  Back to square one on those!  We're discussing other remodeling projects in the house.  Kev's shower needs to be done, as does the bathtub/shower in Andy's bathroom.  We also would like to completely remodel the kitchen, but the cost and the idea of not having a kitchen for a while is stopping us from just diving into that!  But, as spring rolls in, Kev's thoughts will turn towards outside projects.  We need to put new siding on the house, so I really expect that will be our next big project.

I've still been working on Eldar.  I discovered that floss colors have changed over time.  I bought new skeins of 3 colors of gray and realized that the dye lots are not the same as what I had in stock.  I've figured out a solution, and just hope it's not noticeable to anyone but me!

Basketball season might be over, but track season starts today.  Miss Kat has her first meet today.  She's running the 200, and legs in the 4 x 100 and the 4 x 400.  (Why can't they still just call them the Quarter relay and the Mile relay?)  We're ready to cheer her on!

Eldar update #2

Page one of 12 is complete...

Well, except for 4 squares in the lower right hand corner and a few squares in the bottom yellowish block.  I didn't have that color of floss this weekend, so can't do them till I go to Hobby Lobby and get the floss (DMC 3855).

I didn't do those few green colors because each square was a different color and they continue into the next block, so I will pick them up as I move on to page 2.

One of the most interesting things to me as I've been stitching this is to see how the colors play off each other.  For example, the wing of the dragon--which is that huge yellow/orange section.  The top edge is black then a Garnet color then the varying shades of brown and yellow.  I was skeptical about that Garnet floss, it just seemed too "out there" but it works!  It gives a nice depth to the image.  I can't wait to see how this all pulls together!

(Here's the complete picture, just for comparison!)

Kat's room

  Two years ago, when Andy moved out, Miss Kat moved into his former bedroom.  We painted one wall gray with a metallic glaze over the gray and the rest of the room was bright turquoise/aqua blue.  We bought Miss Kat a duvet cover that was zebra striped.  Unfortunately, the room decor just never clicked with either of us.  Kat hated the duvet cover and we spent more time fighting with the darn thing than it was worth.  

So back in October or November of 2012 (you know 3 or 4 months ago), Kat found a new bedding she liked and we bought it.  And, then it sat in the box it came in because we weren't sure what to do with her room.

It sat there until the weekend of Miss Kat's 17th birthday.  For her birthday, I had asked my cousin, Megan, if she'd come paint and do something "special" for Kat's room. (Megan technically is a cousin by marriage, but the heck with that!)

Megan happens to be a professional painter/decorator and is so creative and un-afraid to try anything!  We discussed colors and finishes and special touches that Megan has done on other projects.  And came up with a plan for Kat's room.  THIS is the result:

Kat picked out a soft yellow that matched the pillows that came with the bedding.  We decided to use a flat paint for the yellow.  It's bright enough that we decided we didn't need any extra shine. The gray wall we'd painted two years ago still worked, so we left it, but "jazzed it up some with the flowers Megan hand painted on the walls.  Plus, the sheen on the gray balanced the yellow.  The gray flowers aren't metallic, but are a nice and soft gray.

The second picture is a magnetic wall.  Miss Kat loves to have photos and pictures and lots of paper stuff on her walls.  So a magnetic wall was a perfect idea.  (You can see a small magnet on the right side, above the light switch.  It really does work!)  We bought Rustoleum's magnetic primer, and then painted over it with the yellow.  Like the "WE"?  Megan bought the primer because I couldn't find any in Dodge.  And, Megan did all the work.  I "supervised."  Which means I sat on Kat's bed and talked Megan's ear off!

Since we were trying to get this project finished between the two snowstorms, Megan came down on Saturday and went back home on Sunday.  She had the room painted on Saturday and we were waiting on the primer to dry.  So, around midnight on Saturday, we went to bed.  I got up around 7:30 Sunday morning and went down to see if Megan had gotten started again.  I walked in Kat's room, and found Megan putting the finishing touches on!  She'd woken up at 4:30 a.m. and decided to get to work.  I can't help but wonder if maybe she worked at that ungodly hour just to avoid my "help!"

Miss Kat loves her new "adult" room.  It's been a week, and her room is still clean!  AND, she's been making the bed!

I told Kat that this was the very last room remodel/repainting job I was doing for her.  This room will last until she takes that big step into adulthood...which is too soon.

(But the bedding stays with me!)

Snow days

We were visited by Winter storms Q and Rocky last week.  In fact, the kids and I had 4 snow days.  Three for Q and one for Rocky.  Kevin stayed home all but one of those snow days.  He went to work last Friday, February 22.  The storms reminded us all of our last winter in Colby, when we got lots of snow every single weekend from the end of December until the end of March.  This time, we never lost power which was nice!  What was't nice was when our pellet stove quit running on Thursday.  The new part came in this week, and it's running again, but when it quit, I did have some concern with heat IF we were to lose power.  Fortunately, we were fine.

Winter Storm Q gave us 15 inches of very wet snow.  Rocky blew in with more, but I haven't heard the official amount yet.  Just east of us got almost 3 feet of snow from Rocky and they did lose power.  The storm was worse south and east of us.  And we had it much worse than Dodge City did.  In fact, when they announced that we'd have school on Tuesday, I thought they were nuts!  We were trying to dig out ourselves, and I couldn't imagine that the college was any better.  It was.  They didn't get much snow at all.

And what did I do with a 6 day vacation?  I baked bread.  I stitched on Eldar, I read, I baked cookies and made Andy a chocolate cake with carmel frosting. I cleaned house.  We celebrated Miss Kat's 17th birthday and we enjoyed time together in front of the fireplace.

Here's Andy digging the snow away from our front door.  (The white box is our old freezer.  We need to relocate it/dispose of it, but haven't decided what to do yet, so for now, we are rednecks with an old freezer in our yard.)  Right in front of Andy is the door.  Snow drifted it in completely.  Since our snow shovel also decided to break during the storm, he used a regular shovel and cleared just enough away for us to get out the door.

 This is the inside view of the snow drift.  (Please excuse the remainder of the paper label on the window.  I've not gotten around to scraping it completely off the door.  It's only been up a year!)

 Kevin got our tractor out on Monday, the 25th before the storm was over.  He knew he had to get started moving snow or we'd never get out Tuesday.  He had to dig his way all the way from the shop.  I know he spent 3 1/2 hours moving snow Monday, and he spent more time than that on Friday.

 He finally dug out Miss Kat's car on Tuesday (Feb 26).  Prior to that day, she drove the Escape and we drove the F250.

It's probably our first  last snowstorm of the winter.  We're in a warming trend, which will be nice.  The grass should green up.  I haven't heard of anyone complaining of the moisture or the snow.  It' s not enough snow to break the drought, but maybe it's a sign of moisture to come.