Java Junkie

A {Cheap} Makeover

In early august Mike and I enlisted Grandma and Grandpa G to sit on (grandpa's words) Trey and Xander whilst we celebrated our 12th anniversary in the big city.  While we were in the big city, I drug Mike through several thrift stores and one antique mall.  Nice of me to make him do something he really doesn't enjoy on OUR anniversary right?  You see, I had these visions in my mind, visions of the treasures I could find that would look wonderful after being spray-painted, distressed, and hung on my walls.  The part of my vision that finally spoke to my dear hubby...thrift=cheap.  We didn't find many treasures, but I did come home with this old home interiors picture.

Pretty huh?  While I didn't like the color of the frame in its original state, or the picture for that matter, I thought the frame would look fantabulous spray-painted a creamy white.  I wasn't sure what I would do about the picture - either replace it with something I did like, or remove it and just use the frame as decoration on the wall....

After I got it home I decided to try using chalkboard paint on the glass...below is the finished product on my wall.  (Mom - I finally found the problem that was stopping them from being posted here ;)...it may have been called lazyness...)

I. Love. It.  In the end - I spray-painted the frame, then dabbed dark brown stain on a few places to give it a bit of a distressed look.  I put four coats of chalkboard paint on the glass, attached a ribbon from my scrapbooking stash to the back with staples and tied knot.  The shelf was another one of thrifty finds from our trip to the big city...it was already white, but I put a coat of fresh paint on it, and distressed it with dark brown stain as well.  The telephone insulators were left here by the lady we bought the house from.  Her husband was a phone man, and they had LOTS of them.  I love the color of blue.  The paper balls I was using elsewhere, but thought they tied in well here.

I am so pleased with how this turned out.  Total cost for this makeover was less than $10 - and my hubby no longer thinks I'm crazy for wanting to find treasures at the thrift stores.  It helps that frugalness makes his heart beat a bit faster ;-).  I can't wait to see what else I can find and re-purpose...

Happy thrifting!

July 1, 2011 (Entering the Mountains and Leaving the US)

July 1, 2011 found us waking up in Havre MT and hitting the road bright and early.  We were super excited for our first glimpse of the mountains.  Mike assured me we wouldn't have to wait much longer, and he was right on.  After about 2 hours of driving we could catch glimpses of them...what a beautiful sight!  Below was our first look at the glacier mountains.



We couldn't believe how much snow was still on the mountains at this time of the year .

Shortly after reaching the mountains we made it to the top of Marias Pass.  When we left Havre that morning the temperature was 59 degrees.  When we hit Marias Pass it was only 54 degrees and windy!  We promptly dug out our jackets.

Mike and Trey on top of Marias Pass

Trey and me on top of Marias Pass

 After leaving Marias Pass we came to a place that they call Goat Lick - the mountain goats lay on the cliffs above the river and lick the minerals.  Of course we had to stop to see if they were there...they didn't disappoint us!

Trey was not enthused at all with being as close to the edge as we were.  The closer Mike and I went to the edge - the less enthused he was.

Of course I had to take a picture of him being less than enthused.  It's sort of a family tradition to take pictures of unhappy children...(my mom and my brother mike know what I'm talking about)

I couldn't resist taking a pic of this cool tree we walked by

I'm not sure what these pretty flowers are, but they grow everywhere in Montana and BC...even right out of the side of the rocks.  I suppose since I think they are so pretty someone will tell me they are actually a weed!

At about 4:30 pm we were waiting in line to cross the border at Roosville

We were soooo glad we were crossing into Canada and not into the US on 4:30 Friday afternoon on a long weekend.  The traffic on the US side of the border was horrendous.  Three lines of vehicles with at least 30 to 40 vehicles per line.  Mike said he never saw it that bad during the 1.5 years he drove truck and crossed that border weekly.

Since it was Canada day, the nice man at the border gave Trey a Canadian flag - I was worried about crossing the border, but it wasn't bad at all.  Less than 3 minutes and we were on our way...into Beautiful British Columbia.

In my excitement to see Michael, and meet Kelly, I failed to write down exactly how many miles it was to that point, or what time we reached their house.  At best guess - we drove around 400 miles that day and reached Michael's at about 5:15 pm...just in time for an excellent supper of pork chops with grilled potatoes and carrots! 

800 Miles

We pulled out of our driveway this morning at 6 am.  After dropping Xander off in the big city, we headed west.  Eight hundred miles and 12 hours later, we pulled into Havre MT for the night.  I don't remember ever driving the highline of MT before, but boy is it some desolate country.   After that many hours in the vehicle, we were glad to stretch our legs...Trey stretched his by swimming.

Tomorrow morning we'll continue west bright and early.  We can't wait for our first glimpse of the mountains, and Trey's reaction to them.  By tomorrow evening, we'll be in beautiful BC!

 

Little Dennis

A lot of our conversations lately have revolved around vacation.  We seem to have vacation brain...one of us is even keeping a count down calendar on thier desk, but we won't mention any names.  Last weekend when we were out for a drive and discussing hotels, Trey piped up from the back seat.   Below is the conversation between us:

Trey..."Mom, we wouldn't even need to get a hotel.  We have lots of room in here, we could just sleep in the back of the car.  It would be cheaper."

Mom..."Umm, no, I don't think we'll sleep in the back of the car (we have an crossover/suv but still).

Trey..."Are you scared?"

Mom..."No, I'm not scared, but the car doesn't have a bathroom to use in the middle of the night or a shower to use in the morning."

Trey..."So?"

It was at this point that I decided any further discussion on the topic was useless...my final words to him were..."You are such a little Dennis".  For those of you who know my dad, you will totally understand.

 

 

A few more play outtakes

Better late then never right...here are a few more pics from Trey's play last week.

Did you know Cavemen wore Nike flips?  True story!

These are the CUTEST Elephants I've ever seen!  Love these costumes.

 

A tired caveman in the "Congrats" line after the play was over.  I'm so glad he participated again this year.  I think he enjoys it too, even though he has to pretend sometimes that he doesn't.  I have to jot this memory down here too since my memory is horrible.  I want to remember looking back at these years, his aversion to girls (or at least the aversion he pretends to have in front of his parents).  Every night after play practice, we would hear the kids leaving the school.   For the better part of a block, we'd hear sing-songy girl voices saying "Bye Treeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyy".  One night he ran into the house, and said, half out-of-breath, "I have to run home every night because those THINGS are following me again."  We chuckled and told him in a few more years, he will wish those THINGS would follow him.  I'm thankful we haven't quite reached those years yet.  Happy to keep him "little" for a few more years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Caveman

Tonight was our summer theater performance.  The kids range in age from third grade to high school.  Two of our (very young) retired music teachers spend the month of May rehearsing with the kids, and setting up the production.  This year they performed "The Jungle Book."  Below is a picture of our caveman...who is desperately in need of a haircut.  He thought the long shaggy look made him a more "believable" caveman...now that play is over, haircut here we come!  Shhh...don't tell him!

I'll post more pic's tomorrow - gotta love vacation days!

Summer?

Summer vacation has finally arrived.  Hopefully summer will arrive before fall too!  It has been a crazy winter and spring here in North Dakota.  Blizzard after Blizzard all winter long.  Then, when the snow finally stopped (it even snowed in May), the flooding began.  The red river hit levels almost as high as 2009 in April...but started receding towards late April.  Then in late May, Bismarck started ramping up for a flood fight unlike anything they have seen for years.  The Missouri river is rising due to increased outputs from Garrison Dam, and is expected to continue rising through June.  The sandbag fight is in full force, and people have been moving out of homes that are right on/near the river.  Minot is also fighting flooding - just yesterday they announced a mandatory evacuation of about 10,000 people.  Definitely a year we will remember for strange and dangerous weather.

On our front - live is busy.  Our little boy (or not so little boy) just turned 10.  So hard to believe he is already 10 - seems like just yesterday he fit in the crook of my arm...now my chin rests on his head without me bending at all.  Next fall he will be a fifth grader!   Wasn't he just in kindergarten?   This summer he'll stay busy with baseball, a few camps, and of course, swimming.  The pool opened tonight for the season - he was ecstatic!    

 After the winter we had, we are so glad summer is here - or at least the hint of summer is here.  We're hoping to milk every memory we can out of it! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frosty Winter Daze

Yes, hello...is there still life out there?  Hard to tell here in the frozen tundra...tonight the temps are supposed to dip quite low...like a low of -10, but with the wind blowing our wind chill is supposed to be around -25.  Very thankful for a warm cozy house, a comfy recliner, and a fuzzy blanket tonight! 

This winter we have had so. much. snow.  We have had a lot of snow for the past two or three winters, but by January 1 this year we already had as much snow as we usually get for the entire winter.  Since then we've had at least a foot more.  I believe our total snowfall is nearing 60 inches...that's a whole lotta snow...and will make a whole lotta mess when it starts melting since we had started the winter with ground that was pretty much saturated already. 

This picture shows Mike gunning it to get out of our driveway after round two of our New Years Blizzard.  The plows had come by and left a waist deep (on me) drift across the end of our driveway. 

 These are the "bean climbing" poles on my square foot garden in the summer...in the winter I use them to measure our snow.  Halfway up means we have too much.  More than halfway up means we need to move south...soon.  These were taken around the first of the year.  

Icicles that formed on Mikes pick-up

Trey and Xander playing King on the hill.  Trey loves it when Mike brings the Bobcat out and makes a hill for him to climb!

As much as I dislike Winter, the tree's have been so pretty this year when Jack Frost visits.  I'm trying to find the beauty instead of focusing on what I dislike.

 

Remember my measuring sticks from above--here is a short two weeks later...remember above I was trying to find beauty...doesn't take me long to forget does it.  Also remember I said more than halfway up means we need to move south soon?  WHAT in the world are we still doing here? 

       

While I'm not sure I'll ever embrace winter with wide open arms, that puppy in the picture above at least forces us to get out in it.  It's really easy for me to "hole" up in the winter and pretend I can hibernate.  But...going out in the elements even for a short walk around the block on a cold snowy day does has to be healthier than lounging in your sweatpants for 7 whole months...probably...although the latter holds lots of appeal tonight!

Stay warm...

Kris

A Long Ago Christmas Present

Not only am I the baby of my family, I’m also the only girl.  My brothers were seven and almost nine by the time I arrived.  I’ve been told they thought I was extremely precious…until I became mobile and started messing up their stuff.  I can’t remember what year it was, or exactly how old I was, but in my memory it seems like I was seven.   I was, obviously, old enough to know exactly which buttons, when pushed frequently, would torment my brothers the best. 

Christmas was nearing that year.  I don’t remember receiving lavish gifts for Christmas…there were mouths to feed after all.  That year though, there were more presents with my name then with my brothers’ names.  Of course, being the darling child I was, I had to mention often that I had more presents than they did.  I think most of my needling was pointed at Michael…possibly because he was closest to my age, or possibly because he was the master button pusher, and it felt like poetic justice to me.   Again, the details are a bit fuzzy in my brain (it has, after all been a few years ago), but I think I may have had seven presents with my name on them, which back then was pretty huge.  Some of those presents likely held boring things I needed like underwear, but prior to unwrapping them I wouldn’t have known that, and would have been dreaming of all the goodness that was in those wrappings.  And expounding on that goodness times seven several times a day.   I’m sure I didn’t ever get remotely close to being annoying. 

So, you can imagine my surprise and glee when I woke up one morning to find one more present.  Oh the joy.  I could hardly contain myself.  I remember shaking that present and admiring it.  What could it possibly be?  It was pretty heavy, and if I remember correctly didn’t make too much noise when I shook it.  I was beside myself with curiosity, but found enough kindness in myself to ensure my brothers realized I now had not seven, but eight presents. 

When Christmas Eve finally arrived, and we were ready to open presents, I was super excited.  To this day I can remember my excitement because there were so many presents.  The details get a bit fuzzy again, but I believe I saved the mystery present for last.  As fate would have it, I couldn’t tell you now what was in any of those other presents that had my name on them.  Those uber important presents that I rubbed my brothers noses in.  But that mystery present, I remember well its contents.  It was a big helping of poetic justice served with a side of humility.  Under that pretty wrapping (I think it may have been wrapped in the Sunday comics) was a large box filled with newspaper...and then another box filled with newspaper…and another box.   I don’t remember how many boxes total were inside that large box, but the last box inside the big box was full of…………rocks, courtesy of my brothers who had grown tired of my gloating.  I, of course, thought it was the meanest present ever and immediately commenced being a drama queen.  It would take me a few years to find the humor, and underlying lesson of that present. 

I learned from that present that gloating about what possessions you have is never ok, and doesn’t make anyone feel friendly about you.  Even if those possessions are new underwear and socks, graciousness goes much farther than gloating.  I also learned that if you already have more presents than normal, and one more shows up mysteriously, it might be a good idea to be skeptical…especially when you have brothers.

A Sick Saturday

Thank goodness we had no plans made for yestserday.  T-boy woke up yesterday morning saying his stomach hurt.  This is a common occurance at our house, so I don't always give much sympathy (or even really acknowledge his ailments).  Shortly after breakfast though, he was requesting a bucket--and spent the rest of the day with it.  We were able to get him to sleep a few times, but mostly, he was just sick...from about 10 until 4.

If I'm thankful for anything, I'm glad it wasn't during the middle of the night for a change, but I hate hate hate to see him sick.  Today he's feeling a bit better--he's managed to get a banana and two glasses of water to stay in, so hopefully he'll be back to normal tomorrow.  For today, jammies and lounging (and trying to stay warm) are on the agenda.

 

 

A Boy's Best Friend

We have a new addition to our family...a four-legged addition. 

 
We adopted Xander last week from a local rescue organization.  He is a sweet little guy, and pretty well behaved too.  Trey has been wanting a puppy for ages...Mike and I haven't been even remotely on board with the idea until a few months ago.  When we started considering it, we quickly determined we were not interested in getting a puppy, nor did we want to buy from a pet store.  So we would check the local rescue organizations websites frequently, and even go to the adoption days at Pet Smart too. 

 

About 2 months ago we were in the big city and stopped to see the dogs at adoption days.  There was one in particular that fit what we were looking for...and that Trey left a large chunk of his heart with when we left.  So we started the adoption process...but before we could go to far with it, we had to get Joey to the vet for her shots.  Let me tell you, that was a fun trip.  To say she doesn't enjoy car rides would be an understatement.  It's no wonder why we hadn't taken her for three years.   After she was up-to-date on vaccinations, we filled out the on-line application (which included three references...seriously), and waited to hear from the organization. 

 

Two weeks after submitting our application we had our "home" visit from the organization.  On all adoptions, a volunteer is sent to the potential adopters home to ensure the house will be a safe place for pooch.  The following Monday we received word that we were approved...but the pooch that we had been hoping for had already been adopted.  Twas a saddish day in our house.  It was during that same time though that Xander was placed in the rescue's care.  We were a bit unsure if he would be a good fit for us since he was only between 6-7 months old...and we were not wanting a puppy.  Our reasons for not wanting a puppy are basically potty training and chewing...didn't want to deal with either. 

But, last weekend we arranged to meet Xander at his foster home. We spent an hour with him at his foster home that day...it didn't take us long after we drove away to agree he was the one we wanted.  Mike and I had instructed Trey when we left home that morning not to get his hopes up becuase we most likely wouldn't be bringing Xander (or any other dog) home with us that day.  Yeah...we kinda sorta ended up bringing him home with us...way to hold firm on that declaration huh? 

It's hard to say what type of dog he is.  He was listed as a Corgi/Spaniel mix, but we think he must have some basset and retriever in him.  Whatever he is, he is sweet.  He loves to sleep.  Seriously, he puts the cat to shame.  

  

So we're all adjusting to having a pup in our house.  Except for Joey...she's not adjusting at all yet.  But the extra work, and the occasional mishap are totally worth seeing this look on our boy's face.