Kitchen Island DIY

Hey,
So I got really interested in these diy blogs. I've stumbled on quite a few. Somewhere along the way I decided I wanted a kitchen Island and I was going find something to turn into a kitchen Island. I scoured some anitique/junk stores. I had seen this amazing old dresser turned into a bright blue beautiful island. Well mine won't be blue and a dresser is way to big for my little kitchen. I had a few scoffers who told me that I would not like an island in my teenie weenie kitchen. Well I pondered this, mapped out the size I wanted and found an end table that I thought would be just right. So I took my parents along to see this end table and once I got my Dad's approval we took it home. Now you know from previous posts and because I'm pretty sure you know me and my Dad or you would not be reading this that my dad is very handy with tools and wood. So I needed him to say what I had in my mind was possible and that he would do it. I am not a power tool girl yet. I hope to be. I survived 7th grade shop class. I wired a wall, made a kitty cat door stop, and a beautiful stained plaque that said, "If mamma ain't happy ain't nobody happy." My mom wasn't too happy with that one, but I lay that on my shop teachers head. I passed with an A, but he did take my project and fling it across the room once. Rumor was he threw a hammer at a kid, so I figure I got out really lucky. Anyways I liked Home Ec a lot better. I love my sewing machine and my cooktop. U-turn! Back to the island, so I have a picture of my end table up on blocks (well actually five gallon buckets) to preview the height. I call it my redneck Island. Oh and I love it. I mean love it. I used it like this for a few weeks, much to my mother's fear. Not because how tacky it looked but because of the stability. I promise we tested that too. It was stable. So it looks different now, but I'm going to post about this little by litte because I think I need a hook to keep you coming back. ;) I know I don't post enough anyways, but life gets in the way. BTW we are currently homeschooling and potty training. That's enough to keep an organized person busy, but me doubly busy. Oh and forgive me for the photo. It was taken on my phone and it's the only one I have.

That Kid!

Hey,
So I have been meaning to write about our house. The little things that we are trying to do to make it like the one I hope to build. But alas real life gets in the way. I have very few minutes where I can actually compose my thoughts in quiet. That seems necessary for me to post on this blog. So back to real life. Today at Walmart I am shopping for meals to cook for our friends. Thankfully the boys behaved well until the very end. Drumroll...... In the checkout line, Micah got mad at me, screamed, flailed and socked me in the face. "GASP" No I'm not telling you that I gasped or that you should. No the people all around me collectively sucked in their breath. Audibly. Another mom and her older son where watching. She said "He hit her, You remember what happened to you that one time you hit me?" The little boy definitely remembered, even though I couldn't quite hear what he said.
This has happened before. Not in public though. Micah is on a terrorizing streak right now. Terrible two's whatever you want to call it. He is living it up in his flesh. Willful submission to his fleshly desires. We are working on this, but that doesn't mean we have it settled. Micah is a stubborn kid. So anyways. We were the ones that you walk out going "thank goodness that kid is not my kid". Yep that was us, today!

Beutiful Babies

 

 

Hi,
My friend let me photograph her precious children. We sweltered in the Alabama summer heat together. It was all worth it. These are two of my favorite photos from the set. We were at a church downtown with construction everywhere. Lots of challenges, but I think we both enjoyed it. I'm not sure the kids thought it was as much fun though.

Dyno-man and Captain Thunderbut

Please don't take offense at the title. I just couldn't help sharing this one. So the boys have an audio tape of the incredibles. Apparently they were listening to it recently and were pretending to be super heros at the breakfast table. Grant was saying he was dyno-man, which I must interpret to be dynamite, maybe. Micah on the other hand was pretending to be "thunderbolt", and he kept saying it over and over. He didn't pronounce it correctly though, so shouts of "Hey Thunderbut" were ringing through our house. It was one of those parenting moments when your insides are screaming for you to be the adult and not laugh. Guess what, that inner voice lost. It was hysterical. I'm going to try to get that on tape. I'll also try to video him running because he really looks like Dash.

"Me No Poopy"

So don't you love the title! To quote a comedian "I can't make this stuff up I just right it down". So Micah is very much in the 2's. He is definitively stating his negative will. Our house rings with phrases of me no green bean, me no nap time, me no swim, me no bedtime... you get the idea. So the other day in the car, Micah was playing with two little dogs. He calls out "Mommy". I respond thinking he is talking to me. "No doggies mommy. OK so he is having his dog talk to it's mommy. So as the trip continues we hear the Mommy dog ask the baby dog a question. "You poopy?" The baby dog responds "Me no poopy." I laughed and laughed over that one. We hear that phrase a lot in the house, but to hear it in imaginative play. Too funny.

I have been contemplating starting to potty train, but I am of the camp that they should be fully ready and want to themselves. So the me no poopy has been my gauge. Micah is rather inconsistent with it. He will say he it when he is, when he is not, when he thinks you want to change him. All the time actually. So I am going to wait a little longer. No problem there. I am in no hurry to start that incredible fun process anytime soon.

By the way my spell check doesn't like poopy, how should I spell it then. Poopie, Nope doesn't like that either. Wow the life of a mom. I mean this is important, I want to properly record this years from now so that I don't forget it. ;)

Fishing

So we were invited to the lake on Memorial Day. We had a wonderful time visiting relatives. The boys got to fish. They loved it. Grant was a little sad that he didn't catch anything, but he had fun. Micah was convinced he caught the worm that Daddy put on his hook and he carried it around and made it "jump" in and out of the water. He even made up songs about it. Here are some of my favorite pictures.

Grant as a Ring "Barrell"

So Grant was the ring bearer in his Aunt Gloria's wedding. He actually thought he was a ring barrell and kept asking me what was the barrell. So the pictures are of him getting ready. It was sprinkling the whole time before the wedding. The night time picture is after he found the chocolate fountain that we did not realize they had. Apparently it was at just the right height for him to thoroughly enjoy. We only found this out after seeing his chocolate beard and covered tux. Grant had a great time. He was winking and giving thumbs up during the wedding to someone in the crowd. It was rather cute. He also played freeze tag afterwards and covered his rental tux in mud and grass stains. The only clean part of the shirt was what was under the vest. He loved his fancy shoes. So that is another installment of what we've been up to. Hope you enjoy

where we were

 

So this is where we were two weeks ago. It was wonderful and marvelous. No oil, just a great time at Gulf Shores. That may not be the case now though. It has been such a wonderful thing for the boys. They love the beach and I am thankful for the wonderful memories our family is making.

Antique Finds Cont. and Bloopers

 

So I posted last about the red trunk. Now about the chair. The boys and I were walking earlier this week and these inspiring chairs were at my neighbors. They collect antiques and their cabin was full so these had been tossed out. I was quite happy to haul them back to our place. Grant had to push Micah in the stroller so I could get them. Then we hauled them back down the same way and took pictures in the field next to the chairs previous residence. So I just had to make a storyboard of the Bloopers from my new chair photo shoot.

Antique Finds

 

 

So I was selling stuff in a neighbors yardsale... and I wandered down to the neighbors house and found a red trunk. I thought it could have endless possiblities. The owner said that it was her husbands when he was a child. So it's at lest 50 yrs. old is my guess. So I debated and debated and finally bought it. Some one followed me back to the house I was selling from and offered me double what I paid for it. As you can see, I didn't sell it.
Side note this yard sale is a major event in Huntsville, where they have police directing traffic through a very nice neighborhood. So it was rather easy to shop the others from where we were.

Spring may just be here.

Hey,
There is actually sunshine here. I mean even my sweet little old neighbor Mr. Bill was asking us today what that big ball in the sky was. We haven't seen the sun in so long. Thank you Jesus for sunshine! I really mean that. We all had cabin fever. Just think earlier this week it was wet, and 40 degrees. Today is sunshine and 70. Gotta love that. Sunday back to the 40's again I here. So enjoy it while you can.

My New Table

 


It's my new table!!! Well, actually, it is my old table with a beautiful new finish. Isn't it amazing. When we bought our little antique table I refinished all the chairs and started on the table. For some reason I never finished the table and we moved it in the house. I know we must have thought that was a good idea at the time. I'm sure I intended to refinish it. But here we were, it was 7 years later and the table still had not been recovered. So my Dad once again saved the table. Dad to the rescue. He took it to his house and refinished it. Thanks so much Dad! In the 7 years that the table was unfinished Dad had made a tile topper that I could set on it that protected it. It was really beautiful too. I just couldn't use the table leaves with it. So anyways this is one of the exciting things in our house right now.

Wonderful Weather

Hello,
I should have written sooner. We have been suffering from cabin fever here. I keep thinking of that Muppet's movie with the cabin fever song, but then I think I'm the only one who has ever seen that. So the boys have been sick and the highs have been around 30 for the last week. In a moment of desperation, we bundled up and headed to town with only the plan of going to Chick-fil-A. Drive Thru no less because I wasn't getting out in the cold again. Sorry to my northern relatives. This winter has been brutal. I have actually seen enough snow. I never thought I would say that. We have had days we couldn't leave our house, because all of the roads were closed to get us over any mountain. We don't usually even get our big snows until March, but I am so over snow this year. I am thankful we got it. It has been a lot of fun, but BRING ON THE SPRING! So anyway we ended up having a picnic in our car. All of us packed in the front seat in the sunshine. The boys loved it. Then I had one errand to run that happened to be next to a demolition site. We stayed and watched that for a long time. We saw lots of other little boys with their moms, stopping to watch too. What a day. The last two days have gotten close to 60 degrees. It has been marvelous. I will be sad when we drop into the 30's again. My children have actually seen the grass. Well at this point if it's sunny and 39 we will go out. As long as there is no wind. So that's all for our week.

Comments

Hi,
Okay so thankfully someone pointed out to me that there is no longer a place for comments. Apparently when I went and got a "snazzy" background I lost the comments. So now there is a place for comments after my posts. It was very encouraging to hear you couldn't comment, because I just thought no one read this anymore except my Dad. So comment away my friends!

Thanks

We are so blessed by the outpouring of love and prayers and support during this time. We have had a rough week here and God has just shown me how wonderful my life is. Our friends have brought by food and dessert and movies for me. Our neighbors have showered me with Pier One gifts and decadent cookies. Our parents have been invaluable in taking care of the kids and me. Our family has been showered with love. Thanks to all of the people that have helped to ease our burden and lighten our mood during this time. God is good!

one-eyed Meemo

This is our snowman after a few days in the sun. I just couldn't help showing him off. He used to have two chocolate eyes, but one disappeared.

Real Snow

It really did snow. How glorious. We actually managed to go sledding down our hilll and our neighbors. This is where the uphill yard that I complain about when carrying in groceries is actually a wonderful thing. That happens only once every 10-20 years or so. I wasn't driving at the last good sledding snow we had. (If my memory is correct.) So that was a little over 10 yrs. Well we had a great time. The city was slight chaos though. They closed all the roads that lead out of our road excepr for one. Which meant you had to make at least a 30 min detour. So we just stayed put. Here are some pictures from our time "snowed in". I made my first real snow man. I've never had one over a foot tall. Grant was helping me and then kept quitting so it's a short snowman, but still the tallest ever for us. It had choclate eyes and we thought one got eaten so for a while it was a one-eyed Meemo. That's what Micah calls snowmen. He loves them and he would say "Hey Meemo" everytime he saw it.

Bedtime Prayers

These are our little guys praying before bed. Grant is so faithful to remember all the prayer needs he hears us talk about. He tells us don't forget to pray for so and so when you go to bed. I love this age and am so thankful for the wonderful little ones God had blessed us with.