Crazy Changes!!

Some crazy qucik changes are happening around here.  A very talented friend offered to redecorate my blog and she did so in record time this weekend!! Yippie!!

With that my blog address has changed from www.mylifeasafriendmotherandwife.blogspot.com TO the NEW one www.sunflowerstocacti.blogspot.com :)  Thought the new name was super fitting for my current place in life!

More to come...

Laborless Labor Day

We last minute canceled our last minute trip to CA for the long weekend and opted to venture out closer to home.

After a nice bfast at Cracker Barrel we went to the Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium in Litchfield.  

A short 25 minute drive and we were there.  The kids had a great time and complained very little considering the weather.  I’ll admit there were several times I daydreamed of the 70 degrees going on in CA!!

Aidan was so excited about the curvy palm trees out front of the zoo.

The Baby Animal Nursery was probably Emma’s favorite attraction. The nursery houses the newest babies at the zoo.  Saturday there were 3 different animals.

Baby Tortoise.  He was the size of a piece of broccoli yet his mother is one of the largest breeds of tortoise there is!!

Sweet cuddly baby porcupines.

Baby Tigers that are 3 months old.

Hands down the favorite for Aidan was the stingray exhibit where you are able to pet stingrays.

  

After a bit Aidan gave it a try and loved it.  If you ask him he’ll tell you ALL about it.  Do not touch their eyes or tummy.  Two fingers down the head and back.  Their stingers have been cut off.  We were there long enough he could repeat  everything the worker was announcing to all the visitors :)

Here’s video of Aidan…

I even gave it a try.  Ewe.

Isaac was very interested too!

Lunch was pretty cool.  There was an on site restaurant where you could eat next to the shark tank!  It was a neat environment, and well…the food…um….was… kid friendly.

 

We fed giraffes.

Emma & I rode the SkyLine ride to get a aerial view of some animals.

From above we could see the train we later rode.

            

These birds were funny.  They followed along the train as it took us through the Africa exhibit.

Caught two deer type animals fighting as the train went by.

My sweet baby!  He’s such a trooper on our all day adventures where he sees very little.

He did LOVE the penguins!!

Some unique animals to this zoo:

White Tiger

Albino Alligator

Emma petting a Star Fish

Could get very close to these very large porcupines

Feeding the ducks by one monkey exhibit.

Aidan hiding behind daddy in the aviary.  He wasn’t sure about all those birds!

Ride home…sooo tired!

Home to enjoy the best way to cool off after a hot, dusty, ruining my pretty feet kind of day! :)

            

Overall the zoo was ok.  Kinda pricy in our opinion.  They “brag” about their variety of animals…which they do have a gazillion kinds of deer & birds.  Their tigers & lion had very overgrown exhibits making it hard to see.  In the small mammal building they had some of the same monkeys on display outdoors as well as hamsters, genuine pigs, mice and other basic animals.

Sunday we took it easy.  Attended CCV church north of Phoenix.  Great church, but quite a drive for us to do weekly!  The minister did a great message on Moses…something about how he listened to God’s calling and moved to the desert for 40 years.  Blah.  Blah. Well…I listened to the call, I am here, but certainly hoping I’m called back “home” before 40 yrs!! :)  

Monday Matt started the finishing of our dining room table.  It had seen 9 years of use and was needing refinished.  While preparing to sand in the side yard he found this:

It was in one piece before Matt introduced his shovel to the snake. :)  Any good snake is in two pieces in my opinion. :)

I took advantage of some down moments while Matt & Aidan were sanding & staining to do some scrapping :)  I must admit I’m lovin’ the house layout in regards to my scrap/sewing room!!

Hope you had a great vacation weekend!  We certainly missed our traditional Atlanta Labor Day celebration, but the kids were very pleasantly surprised today when they received a bag of goodies from Gma fulllll of parade candy!!

Brain Spill

I’ve not done well on keeping up with the blogging. So here’s a complete random list of the weird, funny and perhaps boring events around here.  And yes it’s a list.  I’ve been pathetic about taking pictures.  As I type this I realize I never did a 1st Birthday post…of course I haven’t done the Bear & Isaac pic in months…what kind of mother am I!!??

-Emma (a.k.a the Fish) is loving school and is social as ever with her new friend Aaliyah.  Last Friday they were together all day at school, all night w/ a sleep over and then at our house all day Saturday!!  Emma invited her to church Sunday, but she wasn’t able to go. 

She has taken an interest in doing chores…unfortunately cleaning her room is NOT a chore she’s excited about.

Emma is our household fish.  LOVES the pool and is officially swimming w/out the aid of flotation devices!  I can not believe how in a months time she went from leery to full blown fish!

- Aidan (a.k.a. Sir poops.a.lot) is bored.  No 2 ways about it.  He cries for sissy the minute we drop her off until we pick her up.  I’ve even caught him consoling the dog “It’s ok Cracker.  Sissy be back soon”.  Potty training is still a chore with him.  At least for #2.  He had a real set back with the move.  He did inform me the other day (with a very accusing tone as if it was MY fault) that when he eats dinner he farts his poop out.  So, I guess taking away dinner is the answer. :)

I took the boys to story time at the library last week and we’ll try again this week.  There were so many kids and Aidan was leery to leave my side.  He loved the parachute at the end and the park we played at afterward. :)

Luckily Emma’s friend has a little brother Jovvani that is Aidan’s age.  We are blessed to have them live 2 houses away.  It helps with Aidan’s loneliness.  He’s been used to having sissy or daycare kids around his whole 3 years of life!

- Isaac (a.k.a Jaws) is gaining a new tooth all the time.  He struggles more with pain involved than the other 2 every did.  Of course the other 2 never had this many teeth this young.  Before moving to AZ he had never slept though the night.  Waking at least once if not twice.  With all the changes and impending move I decided to wait until settled to let him cry it out.  I was expecting the worse.  The very week of his Bday he would wake sometimes every hour or so…teeth I think were the problem.  So, once all visitors were gone I warned him…this is it buddy.  So on a Monday I kept telling him you’re going to cry it out tonight.  I braced myself for what would be a long evening.  Completely unbelievable, but from that night since he has been going to bed at 8 pm sharp and sleeping until 7 or after!!! No joke!  If I had known it would be as easy as giving him a lecture and warning I would have done it months ago!!!

- Me (a.k.a Scorpion Killer) I just finished ready a wonderful book! Redeeming Love.  I never considered myself a fiction reader.  I read The Shack a year or so ago and it was great.  The friend that recommended that book also recommended Redeeming Love.  Whew! Fantastic! Couldn’t put it down.  A bit of mystery/suspense (my fav) with a splash of love story and all based on a bible story!  It doesn’t get better than that!

Not much else happening in my life.  That’s my main struggle I guess.  I was so used to being busy in KS that I struggle to relax with our less busy life we have right now.  I of course miss my friends dearly and will be processing that MOPS will begin this week without being involved in it. :(

- Matt (a.k.a Lifeguard) is keeping busy at work.  He’s not been working nearly as long of hours as I had anticipated.  He did have his first trip back to OK for meetings last week. He did his first “yard work” last weekend weed eating the “grass” and leaf blowing the rocks.  He enjoys swimming with the kids in the evenings.  The pool layout is wonderful!  By 3 pm the shallow platform is in the shade and by 4 the whole pool is shaded!! Perfect for my pale skinned kiddos!

~ We’ve attended the same church for 3 weeks.  They mailed out a flyer advertising a sermon series on parenting.  We gave it a try.  The worship is awesome.  Sermons have been very good for our place in life as parents.  The kids really seem to enjoy their time in their “classes”.  I think we might try out a few different churches before seeing where He lands us.

~ Excited for our trip home for Thanksgiving.  The airline added Tuesday flights so we are pumped that we get to come Tues through Tues!! Time to see all family and maybe a friend or two!!

~ My goal is to do a sort of “home tour” by adding pics of a room as it become “complete” to the blog.  Last week was Emma’s Zebra room…by goal this week is our room and a 1st bday post.  So come back in a day or two!! :)

1st DIY** Furniture Make-over

Not sure if you’ve ever noticed, but I follow a lot of DIY, decorate on the cheap blogs.  It’s kinda become an obsession.  A good obsession.  Many objects in our new home have seen a good coat of spray paint to mix, match and change up the way things work in the new house.

One of my “biggest” DIY** ideas was born a few months back.  Matt had been insistent that his time had come to get a new TV.  I guess his man card was in limbo of being striped.  He had been watching the same TV since we had gotten married.  On the same entertainment center with the same DVD player.  I mean what kind of wife am I allowing him to suffer this way?  After hours of research he found THE TV.  However, with the price of THE TV and the coordinating Blueray (not to mention cords to connect it all)  and multiple Blueray movies he would want I was trying to think of a way to save on the cost of the entertainment center needed to hold the new TV & components.  The old one’s configuration with a square hole obviously wasn’t going to work.

**DYI as in do it myself with the construction work and heavy lifting done by hubby & FIL :)

I had found several ideas where people had taken the cheapy particle board furniture such as TV stands or book cases, add some trim, paint it up and whala. Good as new!  So that was my mission.

Here’s the pathetic “before” shots.

Kinda grainy.  It had a shelf that came up each side of the TV and across the top.  The components were on each lower side behind glass doors.  The DVDs were EVERYWHERE.in.sight.and out of control along the bottom on an angled shelf and behind the glass doors with the components AND along the top shelf.

Here my Father-in-law had already chopped off the top shelf that went above the TV.

Here is the base with the top hutch removed.  As you can see the particle board is a beautiful honey oak look with gray tops.   Here you can see how he used some boards to build a “bridge” across the top.  He later added a piece of oak that ran the full length of the top.  Why oak?  ONLY b/c we had it left over.   MDF or pine would have been find to save $$ especially since we were painting it.  They added trim along the edge and some new backing as the craptastic cardboard backing had seen better days after 10 years! 

So a coat of tinted primer and some Cracked Pepper paint from the not so helpful woman at Lowes and we were on our way to transformation!

Once primed I practiced on the back to see how to best achieve the finish we were hoping for.  Our goal was a black/brown distressed look.  I tried painting it brown and distressing with black.  I tried painting it black and distressing with brown latex and brown acrylic.

What ended up working was a base of  Cracked Pepper black paint in semi gloss finish distressed by using brown acrylic craft paint.  We then protected the surface with a semi gloss poly. Here’s a close up.  Looks a bit different b/c of the flash.  The coloring is more subtle than it looks in the photo.

   

Final outcome.  One of my favorite ideas was the removal of the DVD holder which allowed a perfect space for the big square pillows we already had!    Now I just need some baskets & decor to fill the other spaces. Oh and the enormous.overly large TV has kinda grown on me.  55” is very big!

Matt ended up mounting the TV on the wall at about the same height it would be sitting on the stand.  I was all for having it out of reach of small hands as possible!!

Here was my helper.  See the hole in the sub behind him.  Yeah.  That’s his favorite place to stick all his small toys.   Daddy loooves that!

Also.  Did you know children are attracted to windex.  Proof below.  Guess he had heard me complaining about all the finger prints.  Let’s change it up….Why not a footprint?

House Tour. Meet Hot Pink Zebra Girl.

Not sure when it started.  She turned 2, loved all things princess, and now she’s 16. I can prove it.  Go ahead.  Search for zebra bedding online.  You’ll find it.  Under the “tween” or “teen” category.  Search for a 6 year old and you’ll find butterflies, flowers, princess, hearts, etc.  Where did my baby go?

I think shortly after the decision was made to move I first heard the “I want hot pink & zebra room”.  She wanted zebra stripes on the wall. Um-no. We convinced her it was impossible just in time to go to my Cousins house for her HS graduation party.  Her room…you guessed it.  Hot pink, zebra…actually a hot pink wall with black zebra stripes.  Grrreat. Too bad Uncle Steve, THE zebra painter, lives in Kansas!! :)

Here’s her chalkboard door sign. *She has since changed the wording on it to read “Emma’s Room No Boys Alod”*

 

Shot straight in the room and only non-colored wall. Desk, zebraie window & end of bed.

Picture collage I found on scratch & dent clearance at Hobby Lobby.  A lil’ hotpink paint and zebra ribbon, of course.  The people in the pictures are nice and all, but will be replaced as soon as Shutterfly gets me my pics I ordered!!

 

And now for one of my most daring decorating moments….the wall color….the black wall! Whew! It was scary, but I looove it!  I highly recommend Lowes HD paint. (Cracked Pepper – Black to be exact)  It only needed one coat!! Wow! Great job painting Marcia!

Her bed & new name letters. (The bed Matt made 3 years ago.  My mom put a new coat of paint on it. Hot pink sheets we had from her room before!!)

Zebra velvety body pillow cover from Target and sparkly peace sign pillow from Big Lots!!

My fav piece!! My $20 Craigslist desk!!  A good sanding thanks to Mimi and new coat of white paint made it look great!  I found the black and hot pink baskets at Target.  They hold all her artsy gear.  Mimi found the pink and black striped fabric and made a seat cushion.  The chair we had in our garage and my slave painters repainted it. Zebra pull from Aunt Marcia and photo board from Hobby Lobby!  (1/2 price of course)

Love the new name letters. (again HL 1/2 price :) ) And a peek at the hot pink wall…

A few accessories.  Daisies I had, but needed a “vase”.  Found this thin wooden container w/ lid for $2.  Painted it black and the lid pink. (however I put the lid on the bottom) and tied some zebra ribbon around it.  Cute hot pink pic frames & a custom peace sign painted canvas that Mimi & Emma did together. Anything involving paint, glitter, glue and ribbon and Emma is game!

Standing by bed…desk & closet door on one of pink walls.

Other corner.  Walk-in closet/play room & dressing mirror.

 

I was excited for the storage of walk in closets.  I had no idea how much they would love playing in them!  The wall mirror with hooks is for her to pick out her outfit for the next day.  My MIL found this idea in a magazine.  The idea also used a grocery bag holder/dispenser thing to hold underwear.  How clever!! I’ve yet to find one…well I have, but it’s a IKEA…almost 2 hours away and Matt has banned me from organizing/container stores. :)) (mirror from Walmart- hot pink- with zebra ribbon glued around it, hooks are command adhesive hooks)

A shot toward her dresser on the other hot pink wall.  The dresser was another refinishing project by Mimi.  I believed it belonged to my grand parents.  Mom refinished it for Emma’s princess room in KS.

Zebra lamp on the dresser from Aunt Marcia. We added the bling, bling beaded trim. :)

 

Wellp that’s about it.  Finally a room that I can say is complete!! Yippie!  Still deciding on the boys room theme. Now on to the next room…hmm.  Not sure which room that will be.  Maybe our room…