So it must be the season to dust off my camera. It's been sitting on the shelf collecting dust for the last, oh, 5 months or so! That's terrible. My girls are growing and I'm not even getting it recorded. But things will change soon. I'm going to get it out and start taking more pictures because I just haven't wanted to during this winter. Sure I've had to take pictures for class, but that is for assignments, not completely for fun, and not for myself.
I just love this one with Lydia and her big cousin reading a book together. It was a very sweet moment.

It's been kind of crazy around here, I had 2 wedding showers and a bachelorette party last weekend! I know, all in one weekend! But now it is all over until the weddings, which will be a complete blast, I cannot wait.
Nate has been busy with yard work, me with school work, and we're trying to finish up our bedroom. We tore it all apart and we're going to paint this weekend, then soon carpeting and then move back in. (Cassidy has moved in with Lydia and we moved in her room, so I'm anxious to get back to normal.) I'll show before/after pictures when we're all done. It will be great.
In the last month or so I've decided to quit being a Stampin up Demonstrator. It's been a great 5 1/2 years and I will certainly miss it (I think mom will miss it more than me!). I've decided I need to concentrate on classes/artwork and my family, because time has been tight around here, and this is quite an adjustment. I'm hoping to get some time after this semester is finished (5 1/2 weeks!!) to work on our scrapbooks. I'm falling so far behind :(
Maybe I'll post more pictures in a couple weeks, otherwise, I'll be back next month...

Beautiful Fall

I love this season...Beautiful skies and colorful leaves. (one of our trees in our front yard)

Country roads painted with colorful leaves. (near forestville on our hayride)
And our home under a canopy of trees. (whose colors look different every day.)

Our DIY Weekend

Our Labor Day weekend was filled with "labor". Actually it was really really easy to install this floor. It is made out of vinyl but looks like wood, so I can have the beauty without worrying about the leaky floor. I also picked out this area rug that is made out of a material that resists mold/mildew too.
There's a lot of finishing stuff to do: painting trim, installing trim, painting door jambs & doors, installing railing and finish lighting. I am not promising it will be done for C's b-day on Sunday. That would stress me out too much.
Last week our friend came over to texture the walls & paint. What a luxury that was to have him paint! He did it in a fraction of the time with his sprayer.
Then yesterday as we were installing the floor I mentioned to Nate that I think I am trying to re-create my bathroom in our old house:
That was not planned. I guess I just like the look. I also really really miss my bathroom in our old house.

making progress

slowly but surely, this basement project has been coming along (thanks to nate). I am no big help right now. I'll do the painting and laying the floor, but as far as building walls and wiring: I don't have a clue and I'm thankful my husband can do it all.
So, what have we done so far?? Well as you can see from the first post about the basement we now have:

• one open room instead of 2 small rooms
• fixed the cracks, rotten post, and sealed the floor
• replaced moldy sheetrock
  
• a closet
• some new lights (it looks like they're not quite finished)

And soon we'll be working on the walls: mudding, texturing, painting. Then it's onto the floor. I think we'll be installing some type of vinyl and then will have area rugs on top of that.
I'm hoping to get most of this finished up before I start school on the 26th. How much do you want to bet that it won't be??

Welcome to our mess

A few weeks ago you might remember about our little water problem in our basement. Well, we've finally dried out down there and went to work. Here's our basement as of today:


Below: This used to be 2 rooms (as you can see where the wall used to be) (my craft room used to be that room in the back...glad I moved that upstairs last summer!) Now it will be one large space instead of 2 smaller rooms. To the right-where the desk is in back-will be a closet to store all of our junk that we don't want any of you to see when you come over :)

So we ended up with a larger mold problem than we thought. We knew there was some down there, but not to the extent of which we found. So we tore out all of the sheet rock that had the mold and it's sitting in the middle of the floor. Most of it was soaking wet!
There's a lot of cleaning to do: much of the mold is still down there...on the 2x4's and posts.
The next step for us is to seal and fix all of the cracks in the floor and then seal the entire floor with a rubber membrane. Then hopefully we'll be ready to put things back together! It might take a while though. We're planning on doing most of the work ourselves. I'll keep you updated!