Saturday, October 27, 2007

Home improvement central

Sorry I've been mia for a while. We decided to finally rip the carpet out of our bathroom and put tile down. It has turned into quite a long project, because with 3 kids, pretty much nothing gets done unless they are sleeping. Being busy on the weekends hasn't helped either, but we are finally puting everything back together in there now. In the middle of all that we also decided to turn the kids playroom into an office. This didn't involve as much construction, but it did require a lot of sorting and organizing of both the kids' toys and our office stuff, as well as a day of me painting. I think it looks really good and now I'd like to put some french doors on it, but Sean seems hesitant to do that. The room is supposed to be a dining room, but we always used it as a playroom because that's what we needed. Now, we need an office and the kids have gotten rid of a lot of their toys, or put them away in their rooms, but Sean is afraid to make this room too much like and office in case we ever do want to use it as a dining room. While I love the idea of having a gorgeous dining room with beautiful furniture (can you tell I already have it designed in my head?), I just don't think that is a practical use of space for us. It would only get used a couple of times a year, and the office is used all the time already.
The next project on our list in the basement. For some reason Sean is suddenly very gung ho about finishing the basement, and there is no way I'm going to stand in his way on that. I would love to have a family room down there that I can put the man furniture we currently have in our living room, and the big screen in. I do love the man furniture because it is comfortable, but it's man furniture. All of it reclines, has vibrating back massaging things in them, and the arm rests flip open and there are cup holders inside. Comfortable, but not really nice.
Our list of home improvement also includes our bedroom, which I want to paint and install crown molding in. We are also hoping to get new bedroom furniture and new bedding. I also would like to tile the powder room. It currently has carpet, which is quickly getting as gross as the carpet in our bathroom was. I am still in shock that carpet in the bathrooms was standard in our house and we would have had to pay to "upgrade" to vinyl flooring in them, but most of you have already heard me complain about that. The list of things I want to do to this house does continue, but those are the things I am concentrating on now. We also still have a ton of work to do in our back yard. BLAH! While discussing this list the other day Sean commented that "Basically I'm never going to be done working on the house, am I?" To which I replied "When you think you are finished, I will want to move and start over!"

Monday, October 15, 2007

Family Tradition

My family has lots of traditions and they are all very important to me, and I think it's important to pass these traditions on to our kids. This weekend we went to my cousins to make apple butter. My kids are the 6th generation to be a part of this family tradition. We go down on Friday and peel apples all afternoon, and then Saturday morning at 6am the guys get the fire going and we cook the apples for about 5 1/2 hours until they become apple butter. Our family has a big copper kettle that we use to cook the apples. We also have a large wooden paddle to stir the apples with, and the pot has to constantly be stirred or the apples will stick and burn. The kids don't really understand the signifigance of what they are part of yet, but I hope that one day they will enjoy making apple butter as much as I do and pass this on to their kids.

Monday, October 8, 2007

camping trip

We went on a camping trip this past weekend with a big group of friends and family. When they originally planned the trip I thought it would be pretty chilly, but probably still comfortable enough to enjoy the trip. Boy was I wrong! With highs around 90 degrees it felt like summer all weekend. The kids got to go swimming all weekend. Who would have thought we'd be swimming on an October camping trip? The kids had a great time camping. Megan on the other hand is not such a good camper. I think it was just too hot for her to be comfortable and I had to bring her home early. We also all took pumpkins and carved them on Saturday. I am hoping next year we will do this again and the weather will be more fall-like.

Field Trip #2

The kids had another field trip on Friday. This time we went to the pumpkin patch. They had a lot of fun going on a hay ride, and playing on the huge playground, and then picking out a pumpkin. Their school has so many activities every month we are incredibly busy. The kids are having a great time with everything going on, but I'm almost overwhelmed by all that we have to do.