Massive Yard Work!!!

So the people that lived in our house before us did not take care of anything. The house was run down. The yard was run down. Everything was bad. The neighbors on either side of us let their bushes and such grow up as much as possible so they wouldn't have to look at our house! Awesome! Anyway, we have been working to rid ourselves of the forrest that was our yard.

After you read my post yesterday, I am sure you were really worried for my sanity. As am I! Anyway, Allen and his dad decided to chop the forrest behind our house down so that we could see the golf course. It looks amazing but you have no idea how much work it was! The pictures give you a fairly good idea. After I had completed all of the homework I could stand, I went out and drug a major majority of all of the trees into the front yard. Allen and his dad were both covered in scrapes and cuts. See all of the trees were covered in briars and poison oak. I dressed in long pants, a sweatshirt, tennis shoes, and gloves. The last thing I want right now is poison oak all over me! Anyway, enjoy the unexpected post.









Things expected to happen this week: a fence! The two windows installed. Maybe get my cabinets fixed around the microwave (if not this week, then next). And we are having more trees cut down! Two on the side of the house because they will be in the way of our new expanded driveway (which we may have to wait a few months to install) and that really ugly cedar tree in the front of our house!!! I am most excited about getting rid of that ugly thing! So a few exciting things on the horizon.

Oh, yesterday I had Allen stop by Hancock Fabrics to pick up one tiny little spool of ribbon for the curtains I am making. He came back with that plus 4 big pieces of artwork for this big wall near our kitchen area! He is such a sucker for a sale! They are really nice and he did an amazing job finding them! I am glad he got them and extremely surprised! I will post a pic of that once they are hung.

Allen lost his wedding ring

I had to post this seperately because I am not actually mad about this... to include this with the last post would put off the wrong vibe. Anyway, I told Allen I would be posting this out on the WWW for all to know and razz him about. So all you nurses out there... please feel free to torture him relentlessly about this.

This wedding ring hasn't been missing for a day or two... it has been missing for months! I am actually a little sad because it was engraved and for sentimental reasons I hope we find it. But he said he had to get rid of it because it was messing with his game. I told him that I would be more concerned about his face messing with that game than I would be his wedding band. Okay... so I can only say that because I know I am married to a great catch with a good looking face. And I know that the ring must be somewhere on that silly golf course. I am also glad that I dont actually have to worry about his ring since I know he is all mine. Some people really do have to be concerned and I am blessed to have a faithful mate. Just a forgetful one and I will not make this easy on him. He would absolutely kill me if I lost my ring! But that is because mine is worth a bit more than his. Anyway, sock it to him! (This post right here is why I am glad he never actually looks at this blog of mine!) This will show him!

AGHHHHH!!!!

I really try to keep this a positive site where friends and family can come and see a happy, fluffy version of what goes on in the wilson home. Today will not be a post like that. So you may just want to move on to the next blog. I need to vent. I really just want to cry, go back to bed and ignore all of my obligations.

Okay so my weekend was full of house work and school work. no time for play or rest. A quick run down of all that allen, his dad, and I accomplished. 1. the boys broke up a row of bricks that were in the ground, hacked down a big ole bush bigger than both of them that was covered in vines and surrounded with poison oak (which they aren't allergic to but I am!!!), fixed the cords from the TV so that they are more hidden, and hung the blinds in our bedroom. That was all Sunday afternoon - until 10:30 pm. I worked on sewing curtains for the spare bedroom (see we need to get window coverings upstairs because the sun is roasting the rooms and heating up everything)oh and I didn't get as far as I wanted because of my dumb sewing machine, I ironed the panel curtains that I bought for my bedroom, started and finished (at 1 am on sunday night) a big paper that was due this week for my masters program,went to panoply breifly since my students had work up, went to a birthday party of a friends little girl, hung some ferns, did laundry, and had to organized a ton of my clothes that had been in the amoir because allen set the tv up in there. We have a few events coming up and we want this crazy house to be in order. Oh, I almost forgot that we hung stuff on the walls and organized the bonus room, put together a new toy chest for kaylen, and unpacked boxes that we still hadn't touched.

So a lot has been happening... what else? Well, I woke up VERY late for school today. Missed first period. Great. Have a virus on my computer that is effecting the printer... along with all of Huntsville City Schools. Trying to deal with that. Got an email from the band director... we are fueding. They are trying to make me not take certain students into my advanced art program if they are really talented in band. Even though the student has chosen to take advanced art instead of band, I am supposed to pretend that they aren't talented enough to make it in and then they are forced to stay where they are at. All for the sake of the program... not the actual students in the program! I guess I need to keep this PG so I better stop there. It is completely rediculous and right now I don't have the energy to deal with such crap. I am not even fighting for my program... I am fighting for the students to have their own choice!

Moving on... I have a portfolio due May 14... I thought I had 10 out of 20 domain indicators that are due absolutely completed. My advisor emailed me to let me know that only 4 out of the 10 were good enough to be completed. So that means I have to work on 16 domain indicators as well as all of my regular weekly work. This is a pass/fail type situation. I am really not sure if I will pass. I keep telling allen about my stress with this but he doesn't get it! I am definitely not upset with him. He has been helping me with Kaylen a ton lately so that I can work on this as much as possible. He just keeps thinking that maybe the advisor didn't see all that I had turned in and I keep telling him that there is no way for her to have missed anything. I truly have this much work looming over me. So you would think with all of this work I wouldn't have anything else but homework to worry about. WRONG!!!! Allen decided this weekend would be a great time to have a major cookout at our house. And this is with his golf buddies on Saturday morning. Could he have consulted me about this and waited until after this big homework push was over? I guess not. So our house has to be in order and people I really dont know are going to be calling me to ask what they should bring!!!!! are you joking? I better not say anything else about this... I really do love having company but I love having company when I have the time to devote to throwing a great shindig. None of these people will know what all I have on my plate right now and they will just think that I am a bad party planner. Oh well. And to top that, I am planning my sister's graduation celebration at my house the saturday of Mother's day weekend. So two weekends in a row.... big stinking events at my unfinished joke of a house when I have no time to devote to planning! Have I lost my ever-loving mind?!?!?! I seriously want to cry. The good news is that on May 15 I am going to the beach with my girlfriends. Boy do I need this break! It will come the day after I have to turn in this nasty big portfolio. If I pass or fail... wont matter at that point!

Anyway, if you think about me over the next few weeks.... please pray for my sanity and that I can be nice to, oh... anyone at all!

BTW... dont expect many posts in the mean time! :)

My amazing art teacher!

After i fixed mrs. wilsons hair, i took a beautiful picture of her!! Shes always on the phone, so i thought, "Why not make a memorable moment out of it!" and also, she looks like this every day, she just trys to act normal in public. What she doesnt know is that, everyone can see through her cover! paha. jk. i love her!
-Sara Lauryn LyBrand aka. her favorite student

Middle School dances are the coolest! One of my co-teacher friends took this picture of Allen and I at the last dance. It is always a pretty interesting night. Just another fun part of my job. The best part is that you can totally dance it up because all of the students are not the best dancers either. So who cares what you look like! Anyway, we had a good time! Have fun this weekend.

house stuff

So I tried to stain our new mantle... it didn't go well. My painting crewleader spent 3 hours yesterday sanding and scraping what I had done. ugh. no telling how much that will cost me! Anyway, she isn't done fixing it but we all decided to set it up where it will go to make sure we are all on the right track... this is how it will look. The TV cords will be gone when things are all in their actual place. We have ordered our fireplace doors and they should be in soon.


Allen had a dinner program last night so I decided to move all of the furniture into the spare bedroom with the help of Kaylen, of course. To be honest with you I thought he would be really surprised because I seriously moved some heavy stuff... a dresser, the bed, a big club chair... but no. He didn't seem all that impressed. He was glad it was done but that was it! Anyway, I guess he just thinks I am ultra strong and isn't surprised by that. We now have to start hanging stuff on the walls and I need to sew some curtains for some of these rooms. The big thing is that all of the furniture is in its correct room! I have a few more boxes to unpack too.
















Oh, Allen's parents came by after I had gotten all of the furniture moved and I got his dad to help me move the desk into the room. So, that one item I did have help on. I am not Shera! Geez.















The next two pics are of Kaylen's bathroom. The mirror isn't hung and there needs to be a few more small things done for this room to be complete but I really love the beadboard in here.
























Sidenote* I feel like I should let the blog world know that we have sent Laci to Jeff and Aline's for a while. I hate that dog! She had been doing so well until about a week ago. In the last week she has peed ON MY LAP 3 times. Last night was the second night in a row. I couldn't take it anymore. Why is she doing this to me? I need the dog whisper. I will admit that I was really hard on her months ago but lately I have been nothing but nice. Doesn't help! She still pees all over me! I can take my own daughter peeing on me but not my dog. GRRRRRRRR.

Jam-packed weekend!

Okay, so I get home on Friday and begin cleaning the house. Neither Allen nor I are paying much attention to Kaylen because we are both working on the house. So I walk through the Dining Room only to find my lovely daughter on top of the table dumping out the last few remaining drops of a full bottle of windex onto my new dark rug. Sigh. Can we have nothing nice? Allen and I spent a long time cleaning the rug to the best of our ability and we were lucky to not have any type of stain. After we were finished with that drama we dropped Kaylen off at her grandparents house (we needed a break) and went to dinner and then Lowes for a new rug. Next we went to the middle school dance and cut a rug. We got home and I waxed the floor in the Living Room so that we could put our furniture in there. Finally we were finished around 2am!



So I slept in on Saturday. But once I got up and going here is a run down of all I did: I went shopping for a few things for Kaylen's room. I did 10 loads of laundry... that's right - 10! It wasn't all clothes. I had some fabric to wash, sheets, the dogs things, etc. I met Allen for lunch at the club and then we went to Southern Home and Hearth. We got a new mantle!(will post a pic once it is hung - still drying) It was unstained so we stopped by Home Depot to pick out the color. I did the staining while Allen and his Dad put up the mount for the TV in the Living room. I was so proud of Allen... he learned how to hang things into brick. He did a great job and of course it is in just the right spot! The furniture was moved into the living room.

I had to cook some finger foods for a birthday party we were going to Saturday evening. I tried to clean a rug for the eat-in kitchen but I am not sure it was saved. We left for the party and stayed until 9ish. The Dining room was put back in order. We moved all of Kaylen's furniture into her new room (first I had get the paper and drop cloths up, sweep and mop the floors and dust everything off). We were in bed by 1 am and had to get up early to go to early church. I am going to make a quilt for Kaylen's room so I got things ready to begin that project. Here is a sampling of the colors:


Here is Kaylen's room so far. We have one small glitch. The footboard isn't attached. The bedrails that I have only attach to the headboard and so I set the footboard there for the pic. If any of you have bedrails that attach to the head and foot of a bed that you aren't using... I'm your huckleberry! I haven't hung anything on her walls yet but I have some cute art ideas ahead. Also, anyone have any window treatment ideas? I am at a loss! I think I need to call a professional for blinds help because I dont know how to hang anything on that.


Pictures of Kaylen's room wouldn't be complete without Kaylen! She wanted to do these two poses for the camera in her new peent chair.


After church we cleaned, organized, I did my homework, oh... and I took a nap from 3-6 pm! I have a cute Kaylen story. I was putting her to bed last night and she had a little pink cat that was going to sleep with her. She was sitting up in bed and she held the cat in her lap. She patted the bed beside her and told her cat to sit here. The she bounced the cat on her lap and talked for him and said, "no, here". She then turned the cat over and spanked it and said, "Obey, Cat!". I am pretty sure she understands what is going on when she gets in trouble! Anyway, I made it to bed by 12:30 but got no sleep. Kaylen woke up crying at 2:30 and ended up in our bed. Okay, the next four pictures are of the kitchen. It's pretty much finished minus the replacement of that one window. What do you think of the backsplash? OH! Something else I did on Saturday... I replanted 6 plants into new pots. You can see some of them in the kitchen.

Crazy continued...

I am secure enough to show you our latest family picture! This photo is especially for Allen's nurses that he sees that check out this blog. Since you were so "fond" of my last installment of crazy images... I thought I would try my hand out with Allen (and just so he wont divorce me altogether I added me and Kaylen). Enjoy! or don't...

!

These images are topping the freak-o-meter charts but I think they are hilarious so I thought I would brighten this gloomy day a bit. I can't believe it is going to be so cold this weekend. I want to pressure wash my house. I tried to yesterday but something was wrong with the pressure washer. We are going to borrow a different one. Oh, since I am just chatting it up a bit... how about American Idol yesterday? Michael Johns?!?!?! GRRRRR. I think there are many others that should be going before him. That's just me. Moving on... things with the house are moving right along. Painters are kicking butt today and there will be a lady cleaning the dust. YEA!!! So we will be able to move our downstairs furniture back for sure. Upstairs I dont know if we will be able to or not. I really hope so because I can't take sleeping with my little tornado anymore! I haven't slept in over a week because of her. I will post a lot about the house next week. I hope to do some before and afters... finally! Oh, one last thing that totally disturbed me... My mom said that when she was driving to work yesterday they closed down three lanes on the interstate because someone had been shot and their body was left laying in the middle of the interstate! What in the world?!?!?! I can't imagine the level of callused you would have to be to care so little about human life that you would leave someone's body in the middle of an interstate. Anyway, for whatever reason I can't get that visual out of my mind. Thanks mom! Okay a major gear switch... enjoy Sara the Bumblebee, Ashton the Moose, and Kaylen as schmegal (I know I spelled that wrong but you get the point).

Kaylen Medley

Some pictures of Kaylen at night. She crawled up on the back of the chair while we were watching Idol Gives Back and fell asleep. She looked too peaceful not to share.

House Progress

House Progress

Things have been moving along on the house. I tried to post on this last week but it just didn't happen. The big changes have been that the Master shower is tiled up. We added beadboard to Kaylen's bathroom, and the painters are here. We had to smooth out the ceilings and put up drywall in the Living Room before the painters could come in. It has been a messy progress and I am glad to be on this side of it. I am definitely ready to get the bedrooms set up once and for all! That might happen this weekend or next week. The plumber is going to get the sinks and toilet in the master working today. The shower wont be done for a while longer because we have to have a glass shower door made for it.



This first picture is of the unpainted beadboard in K's bathroom.


Here is the Master Shower all tiled up.


This is a detail shot of the border in the shower.

This is the living room all drywalled and painted. We need a new mantle, gas fireplace insert, and to mount our new TV that Allen won!!!


Another view of the kitchen/Living Room area.

Jonah came over for a playdate!

Jonah came over to play!

On Saturday, Hollie dropped Jonah off to spend the day with us. Kaylen and Jonah play so well together! Jonah had the best time pushing Kaylen around in the pretend stroller. They just followed each other around and they even shared really well. I was so impressed with how well they got along! It made me want twins (which I know is completely insane)! Anyway, here are some of the shots of their time together:

Playing outside with my kids

Ever since Allen and his dad put up the swing set in the backyard, my kiddos have been having a ball back there! Kaylen and the puppies would play back there for hours if I would let them! This first picture is of Muggs... it was too hilarious not to include. What a dufus!?!?! I had another pic of both dogs but never could get it to load.


The next three pictures are of Kaylen having a good time swinging and sliding. She is gotten so big lately. She has become quite the little talker and likes to make people laugh. She is developing a cute little personality.