Sickie

Tennyson has been sick for two days. If ever there was a boy who needs to eat, it is that one. He is literally skin and bones right now because he hasn't been able to keep anything down. His body didn't have any fat to spare. You can see just how strong and toned he is as every muscle is defined. 

Thankfully, he is asleep now.

He has been so hungry and it's been hard for him to understand why we wouldn't just give him something to eat.

Poor thing.

Deck plans and dreams

We are tearing down our deck and rebuilding and expanding it. We are nearly doubling it in size. The deck now sits at 14' X 10'. We will end up with 22' x 14'

 Here is a picture of the deck now (as we start to remodel I will post more before pictures. I LOVE before and afters!)

And here is the placement of the new deck in relation to the current deck

No, it won't be a turquoise deck, although I think that would very whimsical.

OH! Not this year, but next, we will be adding a white pergola to the top. We are learning that Pergola's are nearly as expensive as decks.  So a lot of the posts will actually be longer than necessary to accommodate the addition of the pergola in the future.

This, is with the pergola. 

Aren't my drawings incredible? Ha!

The pictures where taken looking east. We will be adding 4 feet out to the West and about 12 feet to the North. There will be a little bridge about 4 x 4 feet wide going over the basement door to get to the new stairs. The stairs will change from heading North to heading out to the West.

. I am SOOO excited for this! Kevin keeps saying, "This is going to be the nicest 'room' in our house." Which is true. This marks the first significant investment we will have made on the house. 

I know my drawings are awesome, but here are some inspiration pictures and details I'd like to include:

I like the post details of this one

 

I like how wide the posts and posts caps are

I would LOVE to have electricity in the pergola!

Our deck faces west, so curtains are a must

Again with the curtains

I really like the contrasting colors here

More lighting on the pergola

 

While I love, love, love the location and the yard of our home, the layout is a bit awkward and the house is getting up there in years. My dream of dreams is to level the whole thing and rebuild. However, I have come up with a few plans (that nearly gut the thing) that will save us from leveling and still make the home more functional as our family grows...meaning when our kids get married and start having kids. It does NOT mean that I will be having any more kids. ;) This just makes the first step of changing things up.

Anyway. 

Today we finally decided on the color. It came down to two choices who happen to be complete polar opposites.

Vintage Lantern from Trex

and Rope Swing from Trex

I think both of these look great with the house. Our brick has a lot of colors in it.

but it came down to function. We did a sun test. We left both samples out in the 55 degree heat today (don't mock. My kids were in shorts. It was dang near hot!) for about a half an hour. Then I brought them both in, had Kevin close his eyes, and put his hands on both samples simultaneously. The vintage lantern was much warmer. Since our deck is west facing we feared the darker color would dissuade us from using our nice, new deck for fear of baking to death in the middle of the summer.  Plus, the lighter color will allow any dark deck furniture that we get to pop a little more ;)

Rope swing it is!

 Monday we will finalize the railing. We've decided on going with metal, except for the posts. After that just a few more crossed T's and dotted i's and we should be able to start digging! My goal is to have it all completed by the end of May. 

Here is a picture of the color scheme we are going with.

 We debated for quite a while about whether or not to add a drink rail on top of the railing (the top picture), it's basically one of the deck boards secured to the top of the railing, but I think in the end we are going to go without it.(the bottom picture)

The picture is not the size or shape of the deck, we only want one level etc.,  but you get the idea.

I've been dreaming about deck furniture and outdoor pillows. 

 I especially love this one. That patterned fabric is perfect!

Source: grandinroad.com via Emilie on Pinterest

Ooooo and this one

Source: grandinroad.com via Emilie on Pinterest

And this one

Source: grandinroad.com via Emilie on Pinterest

All things that will probably have to wait until next year as well. Still, one step closer is better than nothing!

(Most of these pictures I grabbed from my pinterest page. If you want the original source for the image, head on over there :)

Filtered

Posting has felt more chore-like than documentary lately.

So much on my mind, but none of it suited to be shared. As open as I am, there are thoughts and feelings, that are usually fleeting, that don't or shouldn't be documented. It's weird for me to be semi filtered.

I'm also under a lot of deadlines. I react one of two ways with an oncoming deadline. I either speed my little hiney up and get 'er done or I do everything possible except the things that would be helpful in meeting my deadline and then scramble around like a crazy girl trying to stuff too many things in too few of hours.

The thing is, everything I'm doing I want to do. I asked to do. So, then I get to this blog at the end of the night and feel completely ungrateful for even thinking about mentioning that I feel stressed and overwhelmed and completely out of my league. And I'm just talking about the mountain of laundry I have to fold, not to mention my design/sewing/pr/mom/t.v.slot/YW etiquette dinner/expo/PYP stuff on my list to do.

See what I mean. I am so blessed. You can't complain about your blessings. That's just lame.

At the same time I kind of feel like I 'm paying attention to everything but not enough attention to anything.

Still. The Lord told me to go this way. He must have known what a terrible procrastinator and time management-er I am. I'm sure there is a way to grow and learn to make these weaknesses my strengths.

Gotta keep reaching and growing and remembering that tomorrow is a new day. Tomorrow I can be perfect in those areas.

I've done hard things before. I can do this too!

Here's a picture of Kevin and I. He's a good man who supports me endlessly. Regardless of whether or not I'm complaining about my blessings ;)

Growing up

We went out with our friends Jon and Rachel tonight. We haven't seen them in nearly a year, even though we live right next to Jon's parents. I never realized, as a kid, how busy with life adults are.

Karaia baby sat for us. She had a few struggles with the little wanting to go to bed, but she takes it seriously. She'll get there. I'd rather get practice on our kids then another family.

Weeding for my soul

I love yard work. Seriously. Love it. It lets my soul free.

Weird, but true.

Thing get done and stay done for at least a week in the yard. Today I got to do some yard work in the sunshine. It made me so happy. I hadn't realized I wasn't happy. I mean, I was happy, but I wasn't really happy. I suppose I am grateful that I was unaware of my emotional state.

We also went and did baptisms at the temple with the Beehives tonight. Those girls are cute. It was our newest Beehives first time. She was darling. Anxious, but so excited.

Sanders threw up last night. He probably would have just gone right back to bed, he's just independent like that,  but he missed the toilet because of the dark. How Kevin and I slept through all that, I will never know. I woke up to him telling me there was just too much throw up.

Yes, I felt exactly how you'd think I would feel waking up to those words...in the dark...eyes still crusted over.

Still, he took a 3 hour nap and is on the mend.

I can't wait to see what I get to do tomorrow!

Feeding the missionaries

I had an opportunity to help feed 85 missionaries for a district...maybe zone...meeting. My friend, Becky, who is not LDS came to help. She was hilarious as usual and loved when the missionaries all sang to us and clapped for us at the end. She said she'll help any time if someone is going to clap for her!

Those boys and girls where so gracious and grateful. I tried to look in each of their faces and send a message from their moms. I know they must miss them, but they would be so proud of how happy and well mannered they all were.

It made me think of my kids and I wondered if Karaia would choose to go and where the boys will go. I hoped I was teaching them well enough to be that happy and well mannered away from home.

I hope when my kids get fed on their missions some lady tries to look them in the eye and let them know that their mom loves and misses them, but is so proud of the good they are doing.

Macaroni and Cheese

I told Kevin I didn't know what to write about. He told me to write about Macaroni and Cheese.

He's so helpful.

In other news our freezer is working, but our fridge seems to be getting warmer.

Lovely.

Karaia has a bit of a dramatic personality, lately anyway. I'm chalking it up to her getting older. I've seen it seep into some friend situations. Usually, they really aren't big outside looking in, but at the moment, to her, it is a HUGE deal.

They always end up being good teaching moments, but man alive...she is entering that moody tweener stage faster than I care to admit.