Porch Project: Huge Progress!!

I have to show you what my husband and two friends were able to do Saturday while the boys and I were at soccer.

They went from this… to this on the front side! And from this… to this on the back side!!

We have a little more trim to get up and then the roofers can come!  The house will look very different with green shingles.   

I can’t tell  you how thankful we are to have such wonderful neighbors.  Two of the men gave up big chunks of their free time on  Saturday to help my husband.  One was here at 8:30 in the morning and didn’t leave till the felt was on at 8:00 at night.  And the other gave several hours out of his afternoon to help with the sheeting. 

I think we’re going to have to have a neighborhood cookout when we’re all finished!

We’ll be working on the trim and more bracing this week.  Then we can pick away at building the deck floors as time and money allow.  I’ll keep you posted on our progress!   

Happy Punctuation Day!? And Other Wacky Holidays in September

I was making lunches for my boys this morning, and I heard on the radio that today is National Punctuation day.  Lol!

Does Hallmark actually make cards for such an event?  Does anyone buy them?  And WHO would be wanting to receive one?  Come on, now, you can admit it!  Lol!

Even the teacher in me finds this kind of funny.  Nonetheless, it inspired me to Google what other silly holidays have been proclaimed.  And I found a site called Holiday Insights which lists bizarre, wacky and unique holidays for each month, along with links to who founded them (if known) and their explanations.  :)

Some of my favorite holidays for September, and the day of the month on which they fall:

5 Be Late for Something Day (This is every day for me!)

5 Cheese Pizza Day

6 Fight Procrastination Day (Do I have to?)

6 Read a Book Day (I’m all over it.)

9 Teddy Bear Day

10 Swap Ideas Day

11 Make Your Bed Day

12 Chocolate Milk Shake Day  (LOVE this one!)

12 Grandparent's Day - first Sunday after Labor Day

12 National Video Games Day (So my boys should only be playing one day a year?)  :)  

13 Defy Superstition Day  (Guess I missed my chance to walk under a ladder.)

13 National Peanut Day (A great one for nuts like me.)

13 Positive Thinking Day

14 National Cream-Filled Donut Day (I’m in.)

15 Make a Hat Day

16 Collect Rocks Day  (With three boys, we celebrate this day often!)

16 National Play Doh Day

18 National Cheeseburger Day

19 International Talk Like A Pirate Day (Arh!)

19 National Women's Friendship Day - third Sunday in September

20 National Punch Day  (I hope they mean the kind you drink!)

21 International Peace Day  (But if not, at least people make up the next day! Lol!)

22 Elephant Appreciation Day (I’d be careful who you give a card to, though.)

27 Crush a Can Day (?)

28 Ask a Stupid Question Day (???  Lol!)

30 National Mud Pack Day (Mud packs were once popular for facials.  We used it for bee stings when I was growing up.  Anyone up for a mudpack facial?  I’ve got the mud!)

Somehow, National Punctuation Day missed this list.  :)  What’s your favorite??

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Photo Story Friday

Can you guess what this is??

Or how about this?

If you guessed a light saber war, you must be using The Force!  Lol!  These were two pictures I took during our Star Wars party.  

I’m sure there is a way to take beautiful in-focus night-time photos of kids running around with light sabers.  But besides not being able to figure that out, I kind of like the lines of the lights.

Then, just when I was about to move on from the Star Wars theme (I know you wish I would!), I gave in and bought something (else) Star Wars-y the other day.  And it’s too cool and cute not to show you! 

I found Darth Vader’s voice changer helmet at the Good Will for $2.99.  And my little guy did such a great job of begging, we brought it home to go with his black costume. 

He has worn it NON-stop (accept for bed) ever since.  Seriously. 

No matter where I go, the deep voice of James Earl Jones follows me though the house…

“Your powers are WEEak!”

“You don’t knOOOW the POOOOWer of the DAAARk side.”

“The FORCE is with you.”

“There’s no escape.  Don’t make me destroy you.”

The mask even has a button you can press to Darth-Vader-ize your voice. 

That’s actually something I’ve come to appreciate.  There’s nothing quite like having James Earl Jones say, “Mom says to get your beds made, NOW.”

Dum-Dum-Dum—da—DUH-Dum. 

Dah-DUH-dum.

I’m seriously considering hiring him full time.  :)

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Homemade Light Sabers: Quick, Easy, And A Must-Have at Star Wars Parties!

O.K.  Was that a long title or what??  Lol!  My boys said I really needed to post about this because we had so much fun making and using them.

So here goes.  I’m happy to say, there ARE such things as cheap, durable light sabers you can make yourself! 

All you have to do is get creative!   Walk the clearance isles at your favorite stores, raid your husband’s electrical and plumbing supplies, and…let The Force guide you!  Lol!

Here are some things I found:

• Bubble wands:  Wal-mart, clearance isle for $.50.
• Electrical tape (in various colors).
• Pool noodles.  The thin ones are great!
• Foam Pipe insulation
• Pieces of dowel rod or thin wood to insert part way up the foam.
• Duct Tape
• Scissors, and low temp hot glue (which I ended up not using).
• Glow Sticks

I made a variety of light sabers as I experimented.  But, I’ll show you the boys’ favorite version.

• Take a pool noodle, cut it in half. 
• Then take a bubble wand and insert the top part of it into the noodle, up to the “hilt.”  It fits tightly. 
• Cut a small piece of pipe foam insulation (the black foam in the picture above) and wrap it around the bubble wand handle.  Pull the strips off the self adhesive edges of the pipe insulation and press them together like the zipper of a jacket to cover the handle.  
• Use duct tape and electrical tape to decorate the handle.
• And if the kids want to dual at night, drop a glow stick down the end and tape it shut.  I used just a little glow bracelet and its light gave the noodle a soft glow.  So I’m sure if you picked up one or two of those really bright glow sticks, the effect would be awesome!!!

Here are a few of the finished sabers.  

And this is one of my favorite Jedi. 

The handles still unscrew, which enables the Jedi to unleash an immobilizing wave of his top secret arsenal.

“Death Bubbles.”

Don’t you love it??  Lol! 

Note:  You don’t have to insert anything rigid in the handle end of the foam.  You can just wrap tape around one end of a pool noodle to make the handle.  But adding a short stick makes it a little less floppy. 

I made a few light sabers out of just pipe insulation and sticks, and they turned out fine.  But we liked the colorful pool noodles a little better.  :)

And there you have it!  A cheap durable light saber that, incidentally, you can let the kids beat the tar out of each other with. 

Safely.  :)

Kid tested.  Mother approved.  Budget friendly.  Works for me!

Yoda Soda

We had a kick off party for the Star Wars Clone Wars Season 3 Premier.  It was mainly for the younger crowd.  But I think it’s safe to say that everyone had a blast!

And the favorite treat of the evening?  Yoda Soda, of course.  :)  

You could go to the trouble of setting up a punch bowl.  But I chose to go the float-in-plastic-cups-route for my group of light saber swinging boys.  For obvious reasons.  Lol!

Simply put a couple scoops of lime sherbet in a cup, add lemon lime soda, then plunk in a straw.  Wah-Lah!  The tastiest The most refreshing float you’ve ever had!  Seriously.  It was SO good!

This little float is my breakfast this morning.  Because I forgot to take a picture at the party. 

Isn’t it fun what we get to do after we send the kids off to school?  Lol!  Shhhhh!  Don’t tell.  :)

 

Oh, And may the force be with you!

Porch Project Update: Materials

Looky here what the UPS man brought me last week! 

Gee, I wonder who could have ordered this?  :)  My name may have been on the shipping label.  But I promise you, a nail gun wasn’t on my shopping list!  Lol!

It’s a Porter Cable nail gun for framing, and it had the best reviews (I’m told).  After trying it out on some really hard lumber, my husband thinks it will work fine and speed up the building process.  Yay! 

I happen to think it will also make him the envy of every man on the block!

As far as lumber goes, we were able to snag the perfect laminated 2x4 beam from the used supply place.  The beams we got off Craig’s list turned out to be too large.  So we’ll probably resell them.

Then, we picked up (or ordered) the rest of our lumber from Lowes.  A time consuming and UN-exciting task.  Just ask our boys.  There are only so many legal stunts (translated: ones that don’t make Mom freak out) you can do with a cart while you “hang out” in the lumber isle.

I’d like to say we got farther on the project than playing with testing the nail gun.  But our soccer schedules were just too demanding.  That, and the Star Wars party we hosted on Saturday evening.  (I’ll tell you more about that later this week!) 

Since we need to have our porches finished by the second week of October, we’re hoping to begin construction this week! 

Stay tuned for further updates!

Crazy Woman On The Loose!

Want to join me??  I’ll promise Chocolate and Coffee!  Lol!

This has been a week of projects, soccer and a myriad of other things.  So I think the best way to catch you up is to use bullets.  If they’re good enough for Kim (Homesteader’s Heart), they’re good enough for me!  Lol!

• House Party’s Star Wars The Clone Wars Season 3 kick-off party.  (I forgot to tell you, I’m one of the lucky ones to have been picked to host one!) Tonight is the season premier on Cartoon Network.  But we’re DVR-ing it and showing it tomorrow night at the party.  The boys can’t wait to beat the tar out of each other with the pool-noodle light sabers we made!       For favors, I hit the jack-pot at the dollar spot in Target, where I found all kinds of Star Wars items!  And did you see that Kroger has Star Wars gummies for a dollar?  Although my older boys groaned, I couldn’t resist!  Hee-hee!  I hope to tell you more about the party next week!  Oh, and those white light sabers in the foreground?  I picked them up at the Dollar Tree.  They’ll no doubt last 33 seconds.  But they LIGHT up RED and make really obnoxious sounds.  How cool is that???

 

• Porch Project Update:  We poured more cement pillars to support the decking.  This week I’ve been hunting down deals un used lumber.  We picked up some laminate beams off Craig’s list last week.  But I was excited to learn of a supply warehouse that actually stocks reclaimed lumber.  We’re checking that out tonight!  We would love to save some money on the rest of the lumber we need!      It doesn’t look much different than last week.  But trust me.  We spent quite a few more hours digging more holes and mixing more cement. 

 

• Peautified.  I’d like to say I’ve been beautified.  But I’m afraid it’s more like poodle-fied.  I got a perm Wednesday.  Because I refuse to give up the big hair of the eighties.                                                                                                                                                                             Only, it turned out much bigger than I imagined.  Lol!  What can I say?  I went back yesterday to get some of the “bigness” cut off.  I now have fairly short hair and lots of curls.  And no, I’m not about to take pictures for you!  :)                                                                                                                                                                               My only consolation, is that my six-year-old hasn’t said a thing.  And if you know six-year-olds, you know they would be the first to ask, “What happened to your hair?”

 

• Soccer.  We’re still in the thick of fall soccer.  Practices on weeknights.  Games on weekends.  This weekend, we only have two games.  But Sunday’s game is over two hours away.                                                                                                                                                                                I love my boys, and I love soccer.  I love my boys and I love soccer.  I love my boys and I love soccer…. And I do.  But, it’s kind of hard to blog (cook, clean, mow, etc.) when you spend so much time in a lawn chair.  :)

I feel like I ought to have a few more bullets.  It sure feels like my week is fuller than these measly four.  But for the life of me, I can’t think of any more. 

Maybe it’s just that I can’t think anymore!  Lol!  Like I said, want to join me?  Craziness loves company!

Have a super weekend friends.  I can’t wait to catch up with all of you real soon!!!!

Friday Funnies: Can You Hear Me Now?

Back story: 

• My Motorola Backflip gets no signal inside our house.  If I want to make a call from home, I have to walk out to the road and hang out at the mailbox.  Three paces to the right.  I wish I were kidding.
• My husband has the “Green Acres” theme song for his ring tone.  (He usually has the volume either low or off.  Which is a good thing.  Because I can’t imagine his phone going off in a business meeting.  Lol!)  He also has the entire “Green Acres” series on DVD.  It cracks me up.
• My husband is ever helpful, impulsive, unpredictable.  And I find it endearing. 

But I about died laughing when I saw this one evening. 

Can you spot my husband?  Do you see what he has?  Need a closer look?

Our conversation went something like this.

“Uh.  Whatchadoing up there?” I asked.

“Looking for a signal,” he said.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

“On the roof?”

“Yes. 

“Um.  Stay right there.  I have to get my camera.”

No reply.  And he was still there when I got back.

“Now,”  I asked, my giggles fogging the camera lens, “Why are you looking for signal on the roof?”

“You said you couldn’t get a signal.  (pause)  The best place seems to be on the back side of the roof.”

“Soooooooo?”

“So, if you really want to make a call, now you know where to stand,”  he said simply.  Still staring at the phone.

“You’ve got to be kidding.  I’m not climbing up a ladder to make a call.”

“Why not?  Oliver climbed the telephone pole every time he needed to make a call.”

Don’t you love it?

I’m linking up to Kim’s Friday Funnies this week.  Because, sometimes, this endearing husband of mine does things that are just too funny not to share.

Project Porch X 2: Footers Poured

Did I promise you pictures yesterday?  My bad.  (teen-speak for, sorry)  I must have been delusional.  Chalk it up to a day that got away from me. 

But I have them today!

It’s going to take some vision, mind you.  Because it isn’t pretty.  Yet.  :) 

This is the first area we are adding to.  We’ll be extending the flat roof of what we call the sunroom to almost the same length as the tall roof of the house.  It will eventually be converted to a small porch to shelter the door and (possibly) hang a porch swing.  You can see the new footers for the posts in the foreground. 

Picture the porch, bordered by flower beds, and connected to a small patio area at ground level.

And this is the second area.  The other side of the same room.  On this side, we’ll be extending the roof much farther.  More like 14 feet, to make a large covered deck. 

We got the footers poured over the weekend, and I got to play mason’s apprentice.  You know what that means don’t you?  I got a workout helping to mix cement.  LOTS of cement.  Lol! 

I’m still feeling it in my arms.  But it was worth all my pain to show up my big bad boys.   They each took the hoe for about a minute.  I laughed when their eyes bugged out and they handed it back.  I guess Mom isn’t as old and decrepit as they make me out to be.  Of course, then I had to compare me muskles with theirs.  Lol!

And when we were done, I crafted this highly romantic and elegant  (yes?) stepping stone from my husband’s and my handprints.

The boys made “dog piles” and this:

All in all, we had fun (if you can call it that) and the first step is complete.

We’ll be working each weekend and hopefully have both porches (minus the deck) finished by October.  Because the second week in October is when the roofers are scheduled to come out and put a new roof on the whole house. 

Changes, changes, changes!  I’ll update you as we go!

Refiner Of Silver

Confession.  This weekend went WAY too fast!  I’m thinking I could use a few more hours sleep, a fresh bottle of Advil, and while we’re at it, can anyone recommend a good maid service??  Lol!

We got started on a home-improvement project which I can’t wait to tell  you more about!  However, because we spent all of our time outside, the inside of my house has reached a new level of lived-in.  Yuck.  And that’s bad for you.  Because I’m making myself right the mess before I unveil what we’re up to.  Aren’t I a tease??  

But I’m not all bad.  Because I neglected my blog all last week, and you were probably wondering if I fell off the face of the earth, I thought I’d share this story today.  My aunt emailed it to me a few weeks ago, and I thought it was pretty neat.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

The Refiner Of Silver…

Malachi 3:3 says, “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.”

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

 
One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

 

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver.

 

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

 

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says:

 

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.

She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time.

 

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

 

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, 'How do you know when the silver is fully refined?'

He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that's easy.  When I see my image in it.”

 

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire , remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you. 

 

Have a wonderful Tuesday!  I’ll be back tomorrow with pictures.  I promise.  :)