One Big Chocolate Chip Cookie

Our house needed to be painted this year.  We went back and forth deciding if we should do it ourselves or hire somebody.  We finally decided that with the high, steep peaks of our house and the little amount of time we had this summer to actually spend painting that we should just hire it out.  So we had our good friend Greg and his crew paint it.  That was a good choice.  It took a whole lot of stress off of us and it went much quicker than it would have if we had done it ourselves.  That still left one hard thing for us to do…pick a paint color.  I am not very decisive when it comes to decisions like that and it was hard to pick just the right color combination.  It took a lot of driving around and looking at paint swatches to finally narrow it down.  Uggghhh…good thing we aren’t planning on building a house any time soon, that would be terrible for me!  We said goodbye to our green house, and watched the quick transformation take place.

Isaac was enthralled with the whole process.  He followed our friend Justin all around the house while he was pressure washing.  He talked Justin’s ear off and pointed out places he had missed.  Good thing Justin is an awesome kid (who just left on his mission) and was a very good sport about having a little companion hanging around with him.

We all got a kick out of the pictures and messages left for us on the plastic covering the windows.

Things got even better for Isaac when Lee got the drill out to replace the hardware on our front door.  He was in power tool heaven.

A few days later it was done.   Our house is now brown, maybe a little more chocolate brown than I had thought it would be, but we still like it.  Isaac and Grace described it best when they called our house a “big chocolate chip cookie”.  Since chocolate chip cookies are Lee’s absolute favorite things, he will always be happy to come home! :)

Memorial Day

We spent part of Memorial Day in a very special place.  It was pretty amazing to see all the flags lined up on the graves at Willamette National Cemetery where my Grandpa and Grandma Russell are buried. 

We took some flowers to decorate their grave and spent some time remembering them.

It looked beautiful by the time we were done.

I tried to help Isaac and Grace understand the reverence of where we were, but they had a hard time resisting the urge to run down the hill and around the flags and on the lush green lawns of the beautiful cemetery.

What a neat experience it was to be there on Memorial Day.  It prompted some good discussions about remembering those who have gone before and honoring those who serve our country. 

After going out to lunch we went home to find Lee, my Dad and Uncle Dan hard at work building shoe shelves for our garage. 

Isaac and Grace were thrilled to see that Uncle Dan had brought Shasta with him.

The shoe shelves turned out great.  They aren’t super pretty but they are super sturdy and functional, just what I wanted.  They have done our garage a lot of good already.

Once that was done we enjoyed dinner and then played several rounds of Wackee Six.  It was a great day.

Projects Left Undone

I find it very depressing when my fall project to-do list is the same, and even longer, than my summer project to-do list. For somebody who thrives on crossing things of my lists, that is hard!{sigh} Here is just a sampling of what didn't get done (it doesn't even come close to touching the list of projects that I WANT to do):

The fabric I bought to make a skirt is still sitting, waiting to be sewn (hopefully that will be remedied tonight with Brenna and our long-awaited Girls Night In!).


The kids' bathroom is still shockingly blue, and the walls are still stark white.

Towels are waiting patiently for hoods to be sewn on them since the babies have long since outgrown their thin baby towels.

The craft room rehaul never happened, and since I keep saying I am going to reorganize, it has just gotten to be a big mess! I have never seen a room in my house such a mess for such an extended period of time.

The back porch is still in desperate need of a paint job.

We had to take a pussywillow tree out of this spot in the spring (of 2008), and it is still empty (except for all the weeds in it right now). It did have a little tree in it for a short amount of time before it quickly died.

Emma's old crib is still sitting in our upstairs hallway (thankfully it's kind of hiding). I can't seem to part with it for some reason...

There were a few projects that did get done.

My mom and I made this way cute stuffed owl with a matching onesie for a friend.

I helped Emma finish her first sewing project. It was a stuffed ball for her babysitting kit that she started in Activity Days. She was thrilled to use the sewing machine and it was a fun project to do together.

Emma finished her stitchery and it turned out great! (Now helping her make it into a pillow has been added to the to-do list.)

The done list is a lot shorter than the to-do list! I better get off the computer and get going...