Free summer bowling!!

Since we last took Logan bowling, he has been begging us to take him again. Truth be told, we haven't. It is just so expensive! Not the case anymore! I signed my boys up in the kids bowl free summer program. After signing up, I was offered a family pass for only $23.95! That entitles all of us to 2 free games of bowling per day from June 1-Aug. 31 (I think that was the dates). Of course, we still have to do shoe rental, but it will still be a relatively cheap family fun night. Of course, we likely won't go everyday, but I'm sure we'll get our money's worth! I know Logan is going to love it! Best part---say it with me--AIR CONDITIONING!!

If you want to sign up for this, you should hop to it. The website said that only a small number of family passes will be offered per participating site.

http://www.kidsbowlfree.com/

Embarrassing....

I'm starting to feel totally overwhelmed by the state that my house is in. With the kitchen torn apart, there are bits of things that don't belong in nearly every room in my house. I have no motivation to clean the house, because even if I clean the living room, bedrooms, and bathrooms, the house STILL isn't clean. Really, they all desperately need to be cleaned, but I just don't have it in me to clean them and then sit down to them still looking messy.

However, the pantry was in such bad shape that you couldn't even get into it. Everything that normally goes under my kitchen sink is now in my pantry in 2 trash bags. So, I decided that I would at least tackle that today (since we sprayed cleaner on the floor to remove the adhesive from the previous linoleum and have to wait on that before we can proceed in the kitchen).

I didn't stop once I got the things on the floor organized. I moved on to the shelves. Oh my....this is the embarrassing part. You see, I have this slight need to stock up when I see a sale. Only thing is, I'll buy it just because it is a good deal and have intentions of using, but never do. So, today I purged my pantry of all the things that we weren't using up (had opened and used part of but still had some left), all the things that were expired, etc.. Wanna guess how much I had in there? Yeah....embarrassing....a whole 40 GALLON contractor bag FULL!!

I vowed to hubby that once my kitchen is put back together, I will do my best to stop that habit. I'm also bad about buying tons of various snacks and I've really started cutting back on that. The amount of junk I used to let my boys eat is embarrassing and I'm working on that, too. I still have a lot of stuff because I can't bring myself to throw it all out (suckers and hard candy that I only allow occasionally), but it is major progress.

My sweet Lucas....

I'm late on this, but I finally completed my "Lucas turns 3" video! He is such a joy!



Here is the post I did on his birthday that has links to his previous videos.

Earth Day!

It's Earth Day and we did our part! Okay, so we really planted this last week, but I think it still counts!

T-ball!

We decided to sign Logan up for t-ball. This coming Saturday (April 25th) is opening day and his first game! To say he is excited is an under statement. He did tell me that he is nervous about playing in front of a lot of people. I think he has visions of playing in a stadium full of fans...LOL!

Anyway, I am the team mom and he keeps reminding me that I need to give him snacks after practice. I keep reminding him that we are only doing snacks after games, not practices. He doesn't really get the whole process of the games, but he is having fun. Here are some cute pictures I've taken during our practices.




Here is a series of pictures that were taken when I wasn't at the field. I saw these when I was uploading the images onto my laptop. When I asked Logan what was going on in them, he stated that it was very windy and the wind blew him over. Interesting, very interesting!

Easter fun!

Since we don't really have a yard large enough for much hiding, we went to a state park along the Potomac. It was fairly busy, but we managed to find an area all to ourselves! For two years now, we've been able to fool Logan into thinking that we get out and check the area to see if there are any eggs left for him to hunt. In actuality, we are running around hiding the eggs. This year, hubby sat in the van with the boys while I ran around hiding the eggs. Logan was super excited when I made it back to the van and announced that there were still some eggs left for him and his brother to hunt. It was a great day!

And now, because I'm sure you all know by now I can never pick and choose, here are a lot of pictures of our day!

Quiet...

I'm sorry I've not been posting much lately. It seems the only thing going on here is the kitchen remodel. We have started the priming and will likely start some painting today. It is going slower than expected because we only have a couple of hours that we can work on it together in the evenings. The weekends seem to fly by!

Anyway, I wanted to share this picture. It is a rare moment in this house...peace and quiet!!



The boys were relaxing and Molly decided to join them. I think it lasted a whole 2 minutes!

Update on the cookie fiasco....

Since my post about my Thin Mints being stuck together I've discovered 2 things.

1. Having an entire stack of cookies stuck together makes it a lot easier to detect when a certain 6 year old tries to sneak a cookie. The cookie crumb trail is much larger.

2. Only 1 of my 3 boxes of cookies had melted and stuck together!

YAY!

In memory of Stephen Mayhle....

On Saturday, April 4th, 2009, Stephen Mayhle and 2 other officers were killed while on duty. Stephen is the BIL of one of my friends. Stephen was a husband and father to 2 absolutely adorable little girls. These girls are very close in age to my boys. Can you even begin to imagine?

This family has been on my mind ever since I found out about this. It has consumed me, really. Today while picking out clothes for Lucas, I chose a shirt that made me think of this family.

Shandra, Brooklynn, and Jennifer: I am praying for you daily.

Julie, Byron, Kenton, Vincent, Kendra, and Alyssa: I am praying for you all as well.

There truly are no words.....all I can think to do is pray.

Kitchen Update...

It has been a while, but we've made some more progress. Since neither of us have ever done drywall, it was a slow process. However, I'm happy to report that it is DONE! Now we can prime and paint the walls.

Since we are reusing our cabinets, we have been working on them to make them more sturdy. We found a Kohler white cast iron sink on Craigslist for a super good deal and we need to make sure the cabinet can support it. Even before taking the cabinets out, some of them were having some issues. Anyway, we have been working on the two base cabinets that go on either side of the stove and dishwasher. One of them is already sanded and ready to be primed and painted and the other one still needs some more sanding. Our goal tomorrow is to finish up the sanding and maybe even get some priming done! It has been a slow process, but I think that we are finally to a point that it will speed up some!

Here are a few pictures of the completed drywall. The picture that mostly shows the ceiling is showing the hardest joint we had to deal with. As you can see, it isn't perfect, but we are okay with that. Nothing in this house is perfect. Considering how it did look, I think we did a pretty good job!