Apparently not. I “helped” Paul a few weeks ago by spreading the fertilizer while he mowed. How hard can it be, right? As with most projects around the house, Paul will be needing to spend a little time correcting my home improvement efforts. Either that or we are going to have some v e r y jealous neighbors.
[Disclaimer: I am Polish so I am allowed to say that. No Poles were harmed in the making of this blog post.]
Imagine a stressful work week at a job where you are not really happy. Then your ding dong wife has a month of vacation and gets to do NOTHING?! Talk about potential to be crabby. Now add this unemployed wifey wanting you to do home improvement projects at night when you come home. After you cook you and her dinner. Double crabby potential. Multiply that by 4 days and it is Thursday night. If you are Paul, Super Husband, here is what you do:
Laundry Room "renovation." We had one shelf that had all that stuff on it. Paul moved the shelf up, then added the 2nd one. DOUBLING our storage space--WHOOOO HOOOOOO!!!
Not to mention he is funny and super-cute:
Paul wears his goggles instead of sunglasses on our way back from an open water swim practice.
Here comes the stream of consciousness…
7:35pm: Anna is giving us (Paul and me) a silent treatment. She is no longer talking outside of school. You may want to pick up that Sign Language for Dummies book.
She is also playing softball this spring. Last minute decision this past weekend to sign up. Her first practice tonight was rained out. Gotta love these silly outdoor sports.
7:38pm: Anna just made an exception to talk to the dogs.
Paul and I went to the Eric Clapton concert on Monday night. Yep, a school night. We are paying dearly for it, realizing we are WAY to old for this rock star lifestyle. Got home shortly after midnight on Monday, Paul went to work at 8am on Tuesday, I took a half day (got my hair cut), but of course still got up with Paul. Cameras were not allowed, so excuse the low quality on the photo below, it is taken with Paul’s Blackberry.
You will just have to believe us that the tiny blob in the center is Eric Clapton
I went to Camp Crop A Lot this weekend: 48 hours of scrapbooking! Here are a couple pages I finished:
What cracks me up about these pictures is that Bluesy really does not like to sit right on the ground. Ever.
7:47pm: Another exception for her to talk to Tyler.
This weekend Paul and I have NO PLANS except a fundraiser party on Sat night and NAPPING. My original idea was to make a list of all the things we were NOT going to do, but that seemed like a lot of work that would only lead to lots of guilt. Spring forward is this weekend. Losing that hour of sleep really kills me. Which makes me kill Paul. Sorry kiddo.
After Camp Crop A Lot I came home and had the house to myself. I decided that it was a good time to paint the playroom (formerly known as Tyler’s bedroom). We kept the Carolina Blue color (despite the season), but it looks much better now. It was a surprise for Paul and the kids. Anna and Tyler declared it not a good present.
Susan has had several home improvement projects that she has wanted to do lately and I am really starting to like these projects. We had a tree fall recently that we needed to cut up and some more trees that she wanted to cut down. Out of this I was able to get a new chainsaw. For a long time now she has wanted to put up some loft storage in the garage which we did last weekend. Out of this project I got a new cordless drill.
Now I am looking for new projects to do around the house so I can get some more tools 
. Right now I have a couple tools in mind that I would like and I am sure I can find more. I want a torque wrench for working on the bikes (I may be able to get this one without a house project). For the loft project we borrowed the Blue’s electric stud finder/laser level and I really liked it. If anyone has any ideas for projects that can get me these tools, or any other cool tools you can think of, let me know.
This past weekend Susan and I made the hard decision not to do the White Lake Half Iron distance race. Now that the weekend is over I think we made a good decision. I left work early on Friday and did a 44 mile ride and have started building back some fitness after being off so long sick. Susan went to the doctor Friday and he gave her some antibiotics and told her to get some rest. She did a lot of sleeping Friday and Saturday, and by Sunday she was sounding much better. Sunday morning she was feeling good enough that she wanted to go for a ride. We took it easy and she still isn’t 100% but she is headed in the right direction now.
With me just getting back and Susan being sick I am not sure if either of us would have finished the race. Skipping the race allowed me to get in some easy training and get some work done around the house. It also allowed Susan time to sleep and get better. Even though I wish we could have done the race I think we made the right choice. Now the goal is to get Susan 100% as soon as possible. We have our first ride in the mountain planned for Saturday the 23rd. Her asthma gives her a hard enough time in the mountains without a cold.
Awhile ago I typed out what my ideal day was for a thing on Facebook. Today pretty much fulfilled that. I got to sleep in, Paul made my favorite breakfast (from a recipe of my mom’s) while I cleaned out and organized our garage post-project (more on that in a minute). We rode bikes and did some yard work. We ate Mexican food on the patio on a gorgeous Carolina day w no clouds. I talked to my mom and hung out w Paul’s family, then friends of Paul’s stopped by. Shortly after we got home from dinner in Asheboro, Anna and Tyler were dropped off. They both made me cards that were so cute. Anna made me a bracelet of various color beads and had a poem about what the colors mean. Tyler had a picture he drew framed for me. Wow. It is my first Mother’s Day and I just don’t think it can be topped.
About our home improvement project…Usually I hear about couples arguing constantly over home improvement projects. Ours made me love Paul even more! I have seen Lance Armstrong side (cocky athlete), Martha Stewart side (cook EXTRAORDINAIRE!), work side (too smart for most ppl’s good), but to see the Bob Vila side, WOW! You can see the photos of him working (I really did just stand around most of the time like I predicted in my previous post) by clicking here. I was drawing 3D pictures and trying to get exact measurements and things. He had the whole thing in his brain for months and executed the plan perfectly! We only made 1 trip to Home Depot–the initial trip! THAT has to be a record!
Also at that link are some photos of chillin and grillin at Paul’s mom’s house for Mother’s Day. Healthwise…I am feeling much healthier and more ready to start the work week than I have been in a long time.
…BUILDING!! Instead of racing the White Lake Half Iron Triathlon, we are going to tackle a home improvement project we have been talking about for over 6 months! Our house is about 1200 sq ft and with 2 kids, 2 cats, 400 pounds of Labradors, and 2 6-foot adults…needless to say we are crowded. Paul and I have mercilessly pared down, purged and simplified, but we still have lots of stuff. So we are going to build loft-like hanging storage in the garage.
I think it will be a lot of me standing around waiting to hold 4×4 beams in place above my head on a ladder while Paul measures and makes the cuts with the circular saw we got for our wedding shower. So I plan to take pictures to post as we go so stay tuned!
Paul does NOT exaggerate. Seriously. He kept saying that the entire yard was clay and roots w a couple rocks in it. Whatever, I thought. Let’s not get carried away. I mean I have done some yard work in my day–how hard can this be?? Welp, we finally have a renter for the house in Elon (I got the deposit and the signed lease yesterday!) so I dug up a few plants I wanted to bring here. I got home from work and went to put them in.
Riiiighhhhttttt… Paul was not just whistlin’ Dixie (I am working on learning Southern). Roots, clay, and rocks OH MY!
Today is Wednesday [Paul's View: Susan says it is Wednesday for us because it is our middle of the week, I say it is Thursday for us because tomorrow will be like our Friday (last day of work for the week)] for Paul and me. We both took Thursday and Friday off to watch the NCAA tourney and paint. The plan is to paint the living room, kitchen and hallway. I love this time of year–watching hours and hours of basketball is a dream come true! Plus I love Paul and I love to paint so how much better does it get?! We will post some pics when we are done. Also, my dad will be here tonight. He is on his way back from FL. I think this makes him an official snowbird. 3 month vacation, then migrating north.
Picture for our bedroom
Goal update…hmmmmm…Kind of average on everything. Things at work are getting worse, which basically only means we are catching up with the poor economy in the rest of the state. On the homefront, we need to replace our HVAC. The irony is that the HVAC in the Elon house (i.e. with no one living in it b/c we can’t sell it) has a brand new one. Well, only 1 1/2 years old. Irony sucks. We have 1 estimate and plan to get the others when we are home this week. I guess we are on a home improvement roll–we took down a light fixture that Paul and I both hit our heads on repeatedly b/c it hangs low. It is ugly too. We also ordered a poster print (already have the glass and frame) to hang in our bedroom (that was painted last year). It is a scene from our trip to Bryce.
In other news, Elli and Michael are expecting a GIRL! I keep lobbying to name her Olivia (they shot down Susan very quickly), but we will see. She is feeling pretty good, taking prenatal yoga and even took a trip to Seattle for a week for work. She has only gained 7.5 pounds and is half way to the finish line–WOW! She is very tough–she was a Diet Coke addict (rivaling you, Stephanie!) and went COLD TURKEY when she found out she was pregnant. Each day I decide to give up Pepsi, but I usually give in about the time I turn on my computer at work. I guess I did not get that gene.
The other new experience is consignment–I am stopping at a place in Burlington (where I work) today to drop off some items to consign. We will see how it goes.
Sunday morning jam session
I wanted to add some pics to our site. Not much to say really. Paul has been playing his guitar a lot lately, which has made Anna want to play too. It makes Tyler sad he destroyed his drum set.
Paul, dogs and Barton (L corner of the couch)
The cats have really relaxed quite a bit in the last few months so there are some cute pictures of that too.
Lizardhead (Tyler's Webkinz) on Paulhead
I love this pic of Anna
Goal update: I am doing well at “active recovery.” Better than we are doing at completing unfinished projects, that is for sure. Taxes are done, Anna and I had some girl time (pic here too),
veggies suck but I learned that you get a TON of spinach for only a few calories so that is what is helping me get that goal checked off. Journaling is sketchy, but I have the rest of the week to get 1 more entry.
Tyler and Bluesy bonding
Still on a book slump, but I started Purpose Driven Life this week so perhaps it will be a hit. Everyone else in the world seems to love it according to the critics. Paul’s mom suggested that perhaps because I am on a slump I should write my own book (see bucket list to the right).
Bike Rumor© 2009-2012 The Sanders Family All Rights Reserved