Ethan's Room

Ethan has been after me since we moved into our house (2 1/2 years ago) to paint his room. I have wanted to but couldn't find the right comforter. When I finally found one that both of us liked, I procastinated getting paint. I don't know why. On Wednesday I got a "bee in my bonnet" and went to Home Depot armed with a pillowsham to get paint. They matched the two colors in the pillowsham Ethan had chosen, mixed the paint and then I was on my way.

Courtney and I pulled everything out of Ethan's room that we could, taped the walls and started to paint. I gave her a small brush and she started to help me. She painted a whale and a fox that was going to eat her. It really was just a bunch of circles, but it kept her busy. I'm not the best painter because I'm usually not patient, but I finally figured out how to paint doing his room. For me, I need a small (5 inch) sponge roller and then I load it up with as much paint as I can. Wednesday I finished "Phase 1" of his paint job which was the base color of the walls...bright blue. The only complaint I have is that I painted on Wednesday. I firmly believe that Satan knows when Bryan has mutual and intentionally reeks havoc on my house that day because he knows Bryan has to leave and I just have to deal with it. Things always go wrong on Wednesdays and last Wednesday was no exception.

With his room full of paint fumes, we decided to have Ethan sleep with Courtney in her room. Bryan put Ethan's mattress on Courtney's floor and, of course, we had to put Courtney's mattress on the floor next to Ethan's. They actually did really well sleeping in the same room.

Thursday morning Courtney and I went to the store to buy more painters tape. Friends and family have tried and tried to explain to me how to paint without taping but it never works for me. I must just be paint challenged. But Ethan wanted a top border (he even specified the size) and I wanted it to look crisp and nice. One friend told me about a technic her friend taught her (the friend is a professional painter) where you use calking. I decided to try it. I spent the morning before the preschool field trip taping and calking the walls (you put up the tape and then run a small bead of clear calking at the top of the tape where the paint will touch and then wipe it into the tape with a wet washcloth, sealing the edge of the tape so paint won't seep under it). When we returned, I started on Phase 2: the dark green border. It actually went really fast, I was surprised. I saved a 1 foot section for Ethan to paint after school and he loved it!

Ethan decided he wants white stars stenciled in the dark green but I'm going to do that later. Tomorrow I'll put his room back together, buy curtains and then take a finished (kind of) picture. I think it turned out well. Ethan has the exact colors he wanted and is really happy with his new room. He said he feels "really special" that we painted it. ;)

Sand Dunes

Today we went on a preschool field trip to the sand dunes in Snow Canyon State Park. Ethan went there on a field trip last Tuesday and prepped Courtney for all the fun she was going to have. Snow Canyon is only about 5 minutes from our house so it was nice. We got there, bought a year pass so we can play a lot and then met up with everyone at the parking lot of the sand dunes. It was quite a walk to get to a secluded spot, especially when I had to carry Courtney part of the way, but it was worth it. The weather was perfect for sitting in chairs and letting the kids play in the sand. They rolled around, made paths down the dunes for balls to roll on and just had fun. We had snacks, talked and then after 1 1/2 hours, decided it was time to go. Courtney loved it and, now that we have a year pass, we'll be going back quite a bit.

Here are some photos:

Baseball Boy

Ethan has just been LOVING baseball, much to Bryan's pleasure! It's funny because during soccer season it's always the MOMS who take their boys to practice. But when it's baseball season it's the DADS who take off work early and get the boys to practice. UMMM.... Anyway, I love it. Yesterday we went to the park and Ethan hit balls off the tee. He is a left hander but hits right and left, so we are working on getting both arms strong enough that he can be an effective switch-hitter.

When we were living in San Diego and Ethan was only a month old, we went to a baseball game there. Ethan wasn't enjoying all the noise so I took him out to the tunnel to hold him and still watch the game. A man came up to me, smiled at me and commented that we were "starting him off right." He told me that if I could get Ethan into baseball, make him a left handed pitcher and get him to switch hit, the man could make Ethan millions. How funny!

Before practice on Saturday (between Conference sessions) Ethan wanted to pose for some photos, which I thought was cute. Here they are:

Love/Hate Relationship

I have a love/hate relationship with my self-cleaning oven. On the one hand, it saves me a lot of work. But on the other, it smells up my house and heats up my kitchen.

Last Sunday I was experimenting with a new carrot cake recipe (I have a wedding cake this month that is a carrot cake, so I thought I should practice). I made the recipe, added a cake extender, poured the batter in a 9x13 pan and put it in the oven. No problem. When the buzzer rang after 30 minutes and I turned on the light in the oven, I froze. The cake had not only overflowed all over the oven, but there was a small little fire happening in my oven. I was talking on the phone and Ethan happened to come in the kitchen right then, saw the fire, began to scream for 911 and went running out the front door. He ran right into Bryan who was coming home from a meeting. I shut the oven door, grabbed some baking soda, opened the oven door and proceeded to dump baking soda on the fire all while still carrying on a conversation on the phone. Bryan just stood there looking at me like I was crazy. I was totally in control!

Anyway, it left a huge mess in my oven. Once it cooled, I cleaned up the charred remains of the spillage and surveyed the damage. I decided I needed to self-clean the oven. But I just hate the smell and the heat that comes from it so I procrastinated. Finally, this morning I did it. It took 4 hours, but you can see the difference.

Before:

After:


Modern conveniences are great!! Lessons learned: 1) don't add an extender to a cake mix that already fills a 9x13 pan, it will always overflow!; 2) talk to children once again about fire safety, both of them are terrified of fires and tend to overreact; and 3) put down the phone while fighting an oven fire if husband is looking on, he may think your nuts!

What was that?

Courtney decided the other day that she has "face cheeks" and she has "bum cheeks" so why can't she have "leg cheeks?" She was riding a horsie on my leg and put her hand on my calf. She turned and said, "Mom, you have pricklies on your leg cheeks." I just started to laugh because a) yes, my legs were prickly and b) I had never heard a calf called a "leg cheek" before. I thought it was funny! I asked her if she had leg cheeks too and she showed me her calf and said, "they're cute." Let's hope she always thinks her legs are cute!

Really UGLY Cake

I helped with Mutual tonight by teaching the Beehives how to decorate cakes. Bryan took Ethan and Courtney with him and the Priests as they did their activity.

I made 6 little 6 inch cakes and then had them split into groups of 2 (there were 11 girls there). I had taken a 9x13 cake for me to use as a demonstration cake so they could see how things were done. At the end of the night they had made some really cute cakes. I was very impressed by how much these girls could do and how creative they were. They split each cake in 2 so they could each take some home. When we were cleaning up a few girls noticed my sad looking demonstration cake and thought it needed something "more." This is what it ended up looking like:



They all had a pretty good laugh using all the left over frosting to make their "masterpiece." Ethan loves the frosting and Courtney loves the cake, so this should disappear pretty quickly! It was a fun night!

Price Matching

I have to laugh at websites who "price match if you can find it ANYWHERE on the web cheaper than we have it!" I always wonder how many times someone calls them on it. I have done it a few times and the companies have always been cool about matching another's price.

Today I was looking for candles for an activity we will have at girl's camp and found one website where they were $15 for 48 candles. After a quick search I found another website had the exact same candles for $14 for 72 candles. I called both companies and found out shipping prices and then mentioned to the more expensive company (who had cheaper shipping costs) that I had found the same candles on another website and asked if they would price match. The woman told me I would have to email proof to them and then call them back and they would "discuss it."

I emailed her a link to the other website and explained that the competitor's candles were only $0.20 per candle and so I would only pay $9.60 for their box of 48 candles and then the additional for shipping. I called them back to see what they thought and, after being on hold for 5 minutes, they agreed to price match it. She was really nice about it and I got a good deal on some nice candles for camp!

And to answer your question, yes I did look around St. George and couldn't get the same candles for that price, so I think I got a good deal. ;)