Ideas for Mother's day

So I am needing a break from all the craziness of late. I will soon be -selectively- packing my craft supplies so I will have to use this as a log of my project wish list. Plus tonight I will be planning next months Bear Cub Scouts calendar. We always try to have mom and dad's day gifts the boys can do. So tonight I start my ideas for young boys to do for their mothers......
We have done rocks before but they are always fun. I especially like the card Oopsey Daisy came up with.

She has a nice poem inside to go along with the rock.

I also like this idea....I am definantly into simple this year. Allison even gives you the labels to download. Tie a string around a flower and VOILA! Easy peasy!

These are listed as teachers gifts but they would work great for mom too....

This is a great idea too from Sisters Stuff. Plus it's easy easy!

Time to get ready for a 5 year old's birthday party. He has been counting down ALL MONTH LONG! He gets to have a sleep over with his best friend and cousin..... Yeah, I have officially lost my mind!

Our home in Tooele

We have an offer accepted on a home in Tooele. I am so excited. I hope all goes well. The Lord is truely watching out for us and helping everything to fall into place. Now is a test of my faith to trust that this major decision will also fall into place in time like we have hoped. So much is riding on the sale of our home in Idaho Falls, I tend to get a bit crazy. Looking at homes is fun but the thoughts of moving is so stressful! I have a hard time dealing with all the uncertainty. I need to KNOW- ugh! Thus the test of my faith. To trust the Lord to follow through after all we can do. We feel good about this job, this move, and this home. Now we turn to the Lord, right!?! So here is our new home.

It just FEELS like home when I walk into it. I wasn't Robin's first choice simple due to money. Although a good deal my second choice (his 1st) was a slightly better deal but I have to go with what feels like MY home and this one did it for me. I love the setting at the base of the mountains and the beautiful view of the valley and Deseret Peak.You can check it out HERE:

Fitness Friday

Ok- so it's not exactly FRIDAY but I wanted to try to keep up on something. How have you all been doing on your health/fitness goals? I have been doing ok. I am not stressing if I don't get my walks in. I figure with all the packing I am still increasing my activity level. I have been trying to do my 25's still though. Plus I have been taking the stairs at the hospital- even when I really don't want to. I am so out of shape by the time I get up 8 flights I am winded like never before but I think it is getting better. After several days on I notice a difference. Then I have several days off again so it's a revolving door. Bottom line is I'm trying. Life is so crazy right now with moving so I think of my "excersice" more as a way to relief stress. Little steps will make a difference.

What have you done? Help to keep me motivated -k-!

Home possibilities...

I found pictures of the homes that caught our eyes.....

 

This one is 2685 sq. feet on 0.17 acres. Matthew loved the windows upstairs. The window went low enough he could stand on his toes and see out. Plus his was up high and could look out to the mountains. Yep, it was a winner for him.

The kitchen is one room that can make it or break it for me. I love this kitchen!

It was soo big. Plus I would get the wonderful morning sun. The lot is small but it is layed out nicely....

This is Robin's favorite part. A jetted tub- ohh la la!

The other home we liked is listed HERE. It doesn't have a picture listed and although we took our camera we forgot to take our own pictures. It has a bit smaller kitchen but the possibility of more storage space and another bedroom for a total of 5. Plus we could negotiate the builder finishing some of the basement which is usually left undone. It also comes on 0.53 acreas in Grantsville. The master bed is smaller and the master bath only has a shower. Plus it's slightly more $$. Closer to Robins work, further from the hospital.....

Ah, the joys of weighing pros and cons.......

We're on the move.....

This has been one crazy week. I nearly got my project done for Monday but kinda got side tracked with great news. Robin got a job in Utah! We are sooo thrilled. He will be starting 1 week from Monday- yeah that's fast. So this week has been a mad dash to get the house on the market, clean up, trips to the D.I., and a trip to Utah for buisiness and house hunting. The boys were really good considering they spent a lot of time in the van and going from one house to another. It was POURING rain yesterday but today cleared up so we were able to see the area a bit better. Tooele is a very pretty area. We are exciting and anxious all at the same time. I don't know what I will do with the boys, soccer, work, and school without Robin to keep me sane! The Lord definantely has his hands in these plans though. We are seeing every day, ways he is helping to guide us and bless us. So for now we are taking a bit of a detour. I will keep you posted on how things go but my posts may be more irregular. Moving is never fun but it is an adventure. My favorite quote of late is "Trusting in the Lord includes trusting in His timing". I read it EVERY DAY! and remind myself of this.

Yesterday we were lucky enough to, totally by chance, meet a GREAT realtor, Guy Kisel. I had called about a home I found online. He answered my questions then searched other homes for us too. He spent several hours yesterday and today helping us. Yep, another blessing.

Yesterday, we found some nice homes but nothing that made my heart speed up. Nothing that spoke "Welcome Home". We ended the day in the gray, pouring rain tired and down, just trusting in the Lord and His timing.

This morning dawned with a drizzle continueing and gray. By the time we were on the road the sun was trying to peak through the gray. As the day wore on it just got better and better. We had planned on leaving Utah by noon but fianlly HAD to leave at 1:30. We found several home possibilities and 2 specifically that would be great for our family. So we ended the day on a high note with choices to make. Now we sit back, ponder and seek the direction we should go. Yep, another blessing!

Either way I know that the Lord knows what my family needs and WHEN I need it. We are so very sad to be leaving our beloved home, our wonderful neighborhood, and especially our dear friends, *sniff* but ohhh, what a relief for my dear sweet Robin. Unemployment doesn't bode well for him.

Life is about adventures and growing and learning. We have grown. We have learned. We have loved. Now we move on to the next adventure. We'll see what's in store for our family.

I know this is long and no pictures but I had to unload what was in my heart tonight. Call it my emotional download.

Keep watching. I will post my projects as they happen and I will post pictures of homes we may be looking at..... Stay Tuned to our Adventure in Moving!

Scrapping Sunday

I am late posting this but I am just glad I got a couple of pages done. Without "scrapping Sunday's" I would not have gotten any pages done this week. This is just the motivation I need to get just a couple pages done each week. I had wanted to work on project 365 too but my nap (I worked last night) lasted longer than I intended. It felt good though. I am enjoying not being so sleep deprived. That was really starting to wear on me and consequently my family. Dear Hubby is Fabulous about letting me rest. Anyway, I am nearing the end of our Nauvoo trip. Only a few more pictures then we head home. I will have Mt Rushmore and Old Faithful to scrap then our trip will have come full circle. I have to say I am glad. I have to take a break once in a while and work on other pictures to break up the monotony. So here is my latest. I used a kit from Shabby Princess. Pages 70 and 71! Yikes, we really took that many pictures!

Looking at these pictures I am already amazed at how much has changed in our lives. Matthew has grown so much and is no longer a baby. WOW! Life moves fast.

Articles of Faith Cards

 Latter-Day Chatter posted AoF cards. I love these. I downloaded them and plan to laminate them and add them to my gospel art kit. This will help us focus on 1 AoF at a time and fullfill the boys Faith in God requirements. Did you forget about those? Oh, yeah, thats on top of their cub scout achievements. *sigh* It never ends. Just make sure mom knows and it will get done right?! 

Thanks Latter-Day Chatter for the help. This mom needs it!

Recipe for Happy Full Bellied Boys

 

Start with picking up a Bountiful Basket. You will have more fruit than you know what to do with.

Add:

4 ravishing boys greeting you as "I'm Hungry"

1 fresh pineapple because you need practice cutting one of these up

3 mangos even though you have 6 ready to eat ASAP

2 bananas

1 cup of Blackberries for color

2 scoops coconut to add to the tropical flavor

2 cans mandarin oranges because boys down these by the case

hint of Almond Extract because that's all that is in the bottle, which turns out to be plenty

1 lone pint of heavy whipping cream you bought way too much of for that other recipe that turned out so-so.

Sugar, don't worry about measuring, you can never sweeten boys up too much

Whip cream and sugar into a thick frenzy, cool down with hint of almond extract.

Fold into diced fruit. Swiftly spoon into bowls keeping straight who had what color or risk loosing your sanity. Place before all four Mr. Hungry's who successfully devour your fruit concoction.  

Sit back and pray that will tide the feeding frenzy for a couple of hours! Oh, and don't forget to add extract to the shopping list.

What's on the menu?!

Here is my plan for this week. Once again I have a short shopping list. I love having a supply to cook from and not needing to run to the store. With coupons I stock up on sales. If I have $$ left after making my shopping list I use it to stock up on items we go through quickly or that seldom go on sale. I try to plan my menu from stock on hand. I consider it a double bonus if I can incorporate something that needs to be rotated out (ie. eaten up) before it goes bad. Sundays we get to enjoy left overs so that leaves the fridge clear for the coming week. I didn't plan this, with church itt just developed. We get out of church at 2:00 pm. After a small lunch it is quiet time for 1 hr (hallelujah!). By the time everyone wakes up or gets hungry again it is evening so we just pull out something quick. I am kinda liking this set up as I don't have to cook much on Sundays. NICE!
****

Monday: Southwest Rice and Beans (never did try this last week)

Tuesday: Nachos

Wednesday: Fruity chicken salad

Thursday: Lasagna

Friday: Smoked Sausage Primavera from Taste of Homes.
****

I also wrote a few lunch ideas and treats to make down while I was going through my cookbooks. I love not having to think when I want to make a special breakfast or treat.

More potential projects

Yep, gonna have to make this one soon. Tyler would love this and I think the older boys would too.

Dry erase book

And from Oopsey Daisy: a Mother's Day Word Collage

 And instead of using washclothes maybe the boys can use these from Under the Table and Dreaming: freezer pop holders

Tomarrow I plan on painting my trim then crafting before I go to work. Sunday is Scrapping Sunday and I am hoping to catch up my project 365 pictures. I haven't been really good about this lately. I will post what I come up with. Maybe I will have time to scrap some more Easter or Christmas pictures too. Hmmm, wonder if I am doing to much?!!

Fitness Friday

Oh, am I tired tonight. I have decided that the stress from living in limbo as to where we will be living in a couple of months is going to drive me crazy! I have been much more active this week, cleaning, sorting and packing things off to the D.I. We are attacking our spring cleaning and clearing everything that we will not want to move. This includes baby supplies as we are done having babies. It is rather heart renching to drop items we have cared for over 4 boys at the D.I. There are a lot of stories that go with each outfit or swing or bouncer or stroller. Yeah, it was kinda hard to see them go. I wondered if I should save some pieces but.....I do have each of their blessing outfits preserved and stored in my cedar chest. We haven't gotten rid of many of the clothes yet so I may change my mind. I wonder though if it will be more work than it is worth. I have lots of pictures. Maybe having nice scrapbooks will be great enough legacy for my boys.......

Anyway, how did you do with your fitness goals this week? With the weather less than cooperative I didn't get in all my walks but I did do my sets of 25. I have a confession though. I don't do actual pushups YET! I have no upper body strength so I am doing wall pushes to build some strength. Then I will do pushups using my excersice ball. Do you have one of these? I love mine. I also do my situps on it. It supports my back better and I do a better crunch with it. Plus you can adjust  your resistance with it depending on how high on the ball you sit. This works great for building strength with situps. I have been working on my lower abs this last week so I didn't use it. I did reverse cruches instead. You know the ones where you lift your legs and butt instead of torso. After 4 children my abs top and bottom need some serious work!! Although I would love to drop some pounds I am just hoping for more tone at this point. I did notice some soreness in the back of my legs this week. I think that is how I will gage my success until I am able to go full steam ahead.

So my goals for this week are: do my 25's every day, walk 3 times, drink more water and take the stairs at work. Since I work on the 4th floor of the hospital this will be tought. It will be 8 flights of stairs and I am usually huffing and puffing something terrible when I get up to the floor. I also don't like the water at work so drinking more water will be tough but I always feel better when I force myself to drink more water.

What about you. What little change are you going to make this week? Little changes add up to big improvements and they are the improvements that last!

Spring cleaning

Ahh, Sunshine! We finally met the sun again today. It was nice to be outside. We had started clearing the basement but we just couldn't stay indoors. I managed to get all the flower beds raked up and around the trees and playhouse. Now the boys get to pick up the piles. I love how just raking will freshen grass up. I also found several of my tulip bulbs pulled up. ARGG! Some little boys (including friends) were in B.I.G!! trouble. Last fall I planted over 100 bulbs so I am anxious to see them pop into vibrant colors of yellow, red and purple. And last but not least, I finished up the last wall of my living room paint job. I had run out of day and it's taken me several weeks to get back to finish it. Tomarrow I will be able to put my curtains back up. On Friday I plan to start working on the trim. This will take a while but at least it is smaller pieces. I also plan to wash some windows. I have a nice system from Don Asletts to reach my 2nd story windows. It takes longer to remove the screens than to wash the windows. We have a pretty good system down where Dearest hubby gets to remove the screens while I wash. I'm not sure I would ever get them back in to place if I were in charge of the screens. I was going to do this tonight but couldn't stand to come in when the sun was shining so warmly. 

*sigh* 

Ah, it makes my heart smile. I love the change of seasons. And I actually enjoy spring cleaning. I get energized and feel refreshed when I am done. I usually use this time to freshen up paint too.

BTW, have you noticed how much organizing you can get done while you are cooking dinner? The other night I managed to clean 1/2 my cupboards and drawers in my kitchen while waiting for dinner to cook. It was a great feeling to open the silverware drawer and see things neatly in their bins. I managed to toss all the odds and ends tippy cup accessories. We are nearly through with tippy cups then I will have lots more space open up.

So what have you done for your spring cleaning? Got any great tips? Or maybe just some inspiration to get us motiviated!

Potential projects

With all the other activities around my house and working I haven't crafted anything for a bit. I have several ideas in my book but I am looking for something quick and easy. I have ACLS (advanced CPR) class this week, painting to finish up and a house to prep for sale- eekks! But I still want something fun for Monday. Here are the ideas I came across tonight. What do you think? Take a guess at which one I chose and come back on Monday to find out....
A table runner

A laptop bag

Accent Pillows

Artwork for one of the boys rooms

Or perhaps the full length mirror I have in mind to cover the nasty hole in my bedroom door (yeah, don't ask ;-))...... hmmmm, I will have to see what I am inspired by when I stop by the store in the morning. I plan on picking up some of those baskets to organize my laundry room. I am liking the artwork though.

I made it Monday

I finished my hamper redo last week. I am so thrilled how it turned out. This is one of the things I enjoy about blogging. I would never have thought to just tear something apart and try to redo it, well not something like this. My mind has been opened to a whole new world of crafting and thriftiness. I am really enjoying it. What do you think? Here are the before and after pictures of my hamper....

Before- UGH!

After- ahh, much better!

I especially like the cording at the top. It gave it just a bit of color. This project only cost about $5. I already had the paint. The fabric was clearanced at Walmart and I have quite a bit left, plus the cording and voila!
Linking up to:

What's on the Menu

Just thought I would share our menu plan. Maybe it will inspire someone (or just fill the void of What's for dinner?) Soccer season is starting. With 3 boys playing AYSO we will be doing more quick serve, crockpot, and perhaps freezer meals. We have always had dinner between 5:00 and 5:30 partly by choice but now by nessessity with my night work schedule so that may help or hinder we will see. Picnic anyone?.....

Monday- Grill

Tuesday- Taco Bake

Wednesday- Johnny Carrinos Bowtie Pasta found this here

Thursday- Southwest rice and beans found Here

Friday- Pigs in a Blanket found Here

Saturday is our Pizza night. I don't have a new recipe to try just our fabulous standby that I posted about Here

I am off for a few days after Tuesday so I may be baking some goodies too. I am in the mood to try something...Any good recipes I should try? I may have to spend some time on Mykitchencafe and Realmomkitchen

I will let you know if I find something yummy. So now I am off to the store. Just a couple of things to get. I have milk coupons and snuggle coupons to take advantage of. Smiths is also having a case lots sale this week and next. Not much I am planning to get but the boys LOVE mandarin oranges. I'll be getting a couple cases of that! I will post my Made it Monday later tonight.

Enjoy!

Scraping Sunday

I am working this weekend so I haven't done many pages but I did a couple. I like the idea of Scraping Sunday, it will keep me going. If I scrap at least a couple pages a week I won't fall too fare behind and perhaps be able to catch up a bit. Perhaps this is the time I will take advantage of the quick pages I have....

Out of the Mouth of Babes

I love being a mom of BOYS! Yes, it is crazy insane sometimes but I feel extra special. Think about how many moms have ONLY BOYS?! When I am old, they will always be there to care for their mom. Plus, I have Father/Son campouts to look forward to peace and quiet. I think it will balance the craziness just a bit. When I am asked if I miss having a little girl I don't quite know what to say...I always knew I would only have boys. Call it divine inspiration or was it divine preperation?

So Robin comes in this afternoon to share a story. He was outside when Tyler came up.

"Dad, when I get older can I marry mommy too?"

Dad laughing, "no son, you will be able to find your own wife to marry."

"Oh. How do I do that?"

"Don't worry. When you get older you'll know how."

"-K-! Cuz I want someone JUST LIKE MOMMY! I love mommy!"

*sigh*

Oh! It does my heart good. Tyler is almost 5 and still calls me MOMMY. The other boys quickly switched to 'mom' which was ok. I didn't mind either way. But with Ty, I'm Mommy! And I love it. I love that he calls me Mommy. It comes out with great endearment and filled with love. He can be asking for a drink, saying "I'm hungry" 15 minutes after dinner, or saying good night, it still makes me smile. He is an incredibly social boy but loves to come home to share his day. He will jump up onto the stool and jabber, Jabber, JABBER until I just can't handle any more. And then he Jabbers some more. ;-)

*sigh*

 I am truely blessed to have such a wonderful crew.

Fitness Friday

I have resolved to get in better shape. I need to lose weight, as do most of us, but mostly I want to be in better shape. However, I need some accountability too. So I am making Friday "Fitness Friday". I figure I will post my successes and trials on my way to getting in shape and becoming healthier. I dream with fond rememberance of when I was tone and fit. I was smaller than in high school and I LIKED IT! I hope to be there again. After  2 additional children my time has sagged as much as my body. This week I started walking. I MUCH prefer moving outside so I am hoping the weather will start to cooperate and allow spring to come. I also have a nursing certification test coming up in June so I plan to listen to the lessons and review while I walk and excersice. Plus I want to tone a bit. Before I did 3 sets of 100; 100 situps, 100 pushups, and 100 squats. I did these every day and let me tell you what they made a difference! I actually had abs!

So this week I plan to walk 3 days and do 25-25-25 (I'm starting small and working up). These may seem like small goals but they work for me. I have to learn to balance my excersice with my other daily to do list, which is incredibly full already. So what are you going to do? Join in the challenge and lets get each other moving. BIG or small we all need support to reach our goals. Good luck!

How does your garden grow?

Just an update on my starts. They are looking GOOD! My tomatoes are growing the best. They are now too tall for the clear cover.

I rotated them around yesterday so they would lean back the other way. My pumpkins are doing ok. Some of them are growing great. Others are just breaking the surface and still others are not doing anything. Later this week I may try to replant some of them.

And my bell peppers are still struggling. These plants need lots of warmth and lots of red light so I am not surprised here. I have some coming through so we will wait to see with my pepper. My jalapenos are doing wonderfully as well. 

 

Ahh, spring is in the air. Last fall I planted over 100 bulbs out front. I am anxious to see bright colors of tulips, daffodils, and crocuses. If only the sun would cooperate......

How are your starts doing?

Organizing baskets

Saturday night Robin informed me our old Easter baskets were destroyed. I showed him this post from Be Different...Act Normal  Then I sent him off to see what he could find. Since it was 9:30 at night there wasn't many options but he came back with these baskets from Walmart.

I am loving these baskets. They turned out great. Plus the boys, Matthew especially can tote his treasures around with him. PLUS! They were only $1 each. NICE DAD!!! So this morning I was looking for more  organizing supplies and came across these....

They were only $2 each. My plan is to have the boys pick up the family room by placing their stuff in their basket. When it's full they have to carry it to their room to be emptied. Hopefully, emptied into the right places and not just dumped in the middle of the room. I know, big expectations but it's a start. I am thinking of using these to organize my laundry room a bit too. I love them. Matthew had a great time toting things around this morning in them too. What better sound than a little boy making car noises and traipsing around the house playing. Makes my heart smile.....

Ohhh, BOY!

"Boys Are Found Everywhere- on top of, underneath, inside of, climbing on..."  ummm yeah....one guess what happened here....

I had gotten Matthew lain down for a nap. Tyler was on his way to Preschool with dad. I grabbed a banana and the laptop to sit down for a bite to eat....

B.A.N.G.........C.R.A.S.H.

I dropped my banana on the floor and RAN upstairs. I couldn't even hear him crying but when I ran in I knew what had happened. Buried under the dresser was my sweet Matthew. PANIC! I scooped him up and thankfully he doesn't even have a bruise, just a crushed ego that he can't climb like he thought. It's not first (and I'm sure not the last) time a dresser has been tipped over for climbing monkeys. I know, I need to bolt them to the wall but I like to rearrange the furniture on occasion to clean under everything. Apparently Matthew has learned to climb from the bed to the top of the dresser like Tyler does. 

 UGH! I really don't like the ER. I count my blessings we haven't been in there more often. I have heard stories of dear dad's adventures....

So now we have had a major adrenaline rush and sleep is the farthest thing from out mind. *sigh* Since Matthew would start crying whenever I left the room I sat down with him while dad.......

Guess we'll have to get Tyler a new Piggy Bank.

Oh, the adventures of boys!

Project 20 & 21 of 52: Scripture bags & Easter wreath

I Made it Monday

I made these for the boys for Easter. The boys each got a new set of scriptures for Easter too. I wasn't sure if Josh would want one mom made plus I ran out of time so I gave him the option of a traditional scripture bag, "like dad's" or one of these. He wants one of these so I am going to be making one more. They were fairly simple to put together and the best part is I already had all of the supplies. They are big enough to hold their doodle tablets as well.

I am excited about how they turned out. The front has pockets for pens and a small notebook. I used the coin pocket from the jeans too. I found the tutorial on The Polka Dot Chair. I think the boys liked them as well. Last night they raced to get their "new scriptures" for reading even though the "old" ones were right by the couch. The goal is that they will learn to mark and search their scriptures then when the get they turn 12 they will get a nice leather set. Whatever will get them reading their scriptures is good for me.

I also made this wreath. Robin commented that he likes wreaths because you can have them for any holiday. I didn't have as much Easter decor as I thought but this was all I got added this year. I have been too busy with other projects and Easter came much faster this year.

I bought the eggs and butterflies from the Dollar Tree. The rest I already had on hand. I even have 6 more eggs that I could make another one. Spanish moss is a MESS! to deal with though. I used spray craft glue. I don't know how else you could get all the bits to stick down. The eggs and butterflies I used my hot glue gun. That is definitely one tool I could not live without. I use my glue gun for everything.

I am nearly done with my hamper redo so be watching for that. Anyone else have great ideas to share? Let me know.

I'm linking to:

Scraping Sunday

I worked on several things all day today while watching conference. Loved it! Did you notice how many talked about Love in all it's forms? We had to watch via internet. It streams about 10 minutes behind. I don't care for it much as it's harder to keep the boys involved but for now it works. We will have cable by next time. 

So for today I have the April VT handout as well.

Download it HERE and HERE

You place the blue page over the pink portion. I worked off the idea of opening the door to personal revelation. I hope you like it. I connected the two pages with brads. Here is mine...

Sorry the second picture is rotated. Not sure why and I'm not sure how to fix it but you get the idea.

I also worked on redoing my laundry hamper. I will hopefully finish that tomarrow. This week will be week of finishing projects. I am trying desperately to wrap a few things up for if and when we move. DH has vetoed a yard sale this summer so we will be listing our goodwill stuff for a charitable contributions tax write off next year and taking it to the D.I. Now that we are done having kids we will be getting rid of our baby supplies among other things. 

Yesterday we had a great family gathering with, as usual, too much food. I hope to have those pictures scrapped by next week. It will be great to use my Easter downloads. As I finish up Christmas pictures here are a couple I worked on this past week.

Nothing fancy. I figure if I can just keep up, sort of, then the boys and their families won't much care how fancy the pages are. Rather they will enjoy the PICTURES themselves. I know that's what I enjoy most when looking through scrapbooks. The embelishments are just nice extras. Well, that's my hope at least. Of course that means I need to get to printing some of these pages. I was warned when I started digitally scrapping that you have to be sure to actually PRINT your pages. I was going to print them into bound books but since I am not doing them 100% chronologically I will be printing them by sheets. This way I can use up the binders I have already as well. WNWN, right Tina?! Ok, off to bed. Sleep tight. Hope you all had a fabulous Easter and enjoyed conference. Let me know if you download the VT message and what you think!

Job hunting....

So several people have asked how the job hunting is going for Robin. Well, he is still unemployed but we have some exciting prospects. He has interviewed 3 times for a couple of different positions in Utah with a company called JT3 

They work with the radar and tracking systems on Hill Air Force Base as well as some private contracting with SLC Int'l Airport. 

 

It seems to be a great company to work for; great benefits, possibility for continueing education, and great pay. Robin is WAY excited. They are working on background checks and preliminary clearance checks right now. We are anticipating hearing something in the next week or two. Robin would love to do this type of work. He is almost like a kid explaining a new toy when he talks about the job description. He would also have to potential for promotion and upward growth which he didn't have AT ALL before. Plus, I would finally be able to stay home with the boys more and only work part time. The down side is that we would have to move to Utah, either Ogden area or Tooele. When we bought our home we never planned on moving again. We have falled in love with our home, our yard, our ward and our neighborhood. We could not have hand selected a better area for our family. The boys all have numerous friends on our street and even more in our neighborhood. We have the best ward we have ever lived in. It will be so hard to leave all of this. I have some dear friends who have supported me so much over the past few months. Robin, too, has buddies he can get together to do guy things with. We always said one day this experience would become a blessing. I think that day is aproaching but we have yet to cross a couple difficult hurdles. So around here we have some intensely anxious excitment building. Robin is nearly bursting with anticipation. We are living by the motto "Everything happens for a Reason". I know the Lord will lead us where he needs us. In that is my trust. What a tumultuous time we live in -eh. Please keep us in your prays. "Dad still needs a job". Each day I am thankful for the inspiration to go into nursing. As a nurse I can get a job nearly anywhere. With numerous hospitals along the Wasatch front that is one detail we need not stress over. *whew*. I'll keep you posted on any happenings.

Project 19 of 52: Before and after painting

Before:

I finally got my house painted. When we moved in the white was really refreshing. After nearly 5 yrs I was ready for some color. Lowes had their paint on sale a couple of weeks ago. The cream is something like Vanilla Brandy by Olympic. I was worried at first. The red is Cedar Chest. The cream has more of a yellow base than I thought and the red more orange, but I love it. DH loves it too. He kept commenting on how warm it felt. I plan to redo the white trim but haven't gotten to that yet. What do you think?

After:

I am not a messy painter so I don't lay much covering down. I use one of these paint trimmers to cut in around the ceiling and trim. No taping off here.

It saves a lot of time. I start by moving furniture, removing outlet covers, covering the outlets and then using putty on the dings and holes. I found that if you don't have the right sandpaper available that the green cello scratch pads do a pretty good job. After the prep I cut in a section with my trimmer then it's time to roll on the paint. It goes pretty fast this way too. I was able to do our family room in about 2 hours. 

I don't know about you, but spring just brings out the redecorator in me. I usually have several home improvement/paint jobs I want to do. This has been my favorite so far. It made such a difference. So what are you itching to do this spring?
I'm linking up to TDC Before and After party: