Post of Pictures and a Thanks

Quick post of pictures.

Nekid before dinner of macaroni and cheese.

Peanut and Marvin Monkey from Build a Bear.

Nappin with Marvin. Marvin is 1/2 inch taller than Peanut was at birth.

Playing with Blackjack.

Is my hair messed up?

I'm outta here!

Thanks to Aunt Jen and the kiddos. Peanut got his package last week and loves the books. The Curious George book is read at least twice a day and sometimes he'll sit through Runaway Bunny. The cow puppet is ok as long as it's not on anyone's hand. But it's fun to drag around by the ears.

Off to do more schoolwork. I'm insane and signed up for a third class because I like to punish and stress myself. As long as I force myself to leave my sewing area alone, I'll get a little bit of school work done each day. It's getting harder and harder to not throw in the towel and give up.

Oh, and to rub in our beautiful weather, it's been in the 80's all week and perfect outside. Hahahaha to all the suckers still in the PNW.

TTFN ~Crys

Latest news

Hope everyone got their tax forms in the mail and postmarked today. Ours are finished, federal refund already deposited in our account (score big time for us. We LOVE our CPA!) and the OR and AZ states have been sent off yesterday. Usually, we don't wait for the last weekend to finish up, but we were waiting on the IRS to send us 1 more letter about our business in order for our CPA to do our taxes and we got that in the middle of March. And I needed time to sit and follow the directions to fill out the state form. We saved about $300 from doing the state forms ourselves. Not too shabby and we'll be getting a little back from OR so it was worth the few hours it took me to finish up.

Hope everyone's Easter was a good one. Ours was nice and quiet. We went to church and came home to put a turkey in the oven. It's been about 5 years since I've cooked a turkey, and I'm proud to say, only 1 phone call was made to Mom. It was excellent and we enjoyed a quiet dinner and relaxed on the couch.

We've also found a home church for us. It's a very small, Presbyterian church that we started attending about a month and half ago. The pastor and his wife are around our ages, and made us both felt very welcomed, as did the rest of the congregation. Mike and I both feel right now, we need to be part of a small church as we explore and build our faith in our Lord. The other church we went to left us very lost in the sea of people and feeling disconnected. Not encouraging feelings when trying to get myself and Peanut up, dressed, fed, and out the door on time on Sundays.

I haven't posted in over a month simply because time gets away from me. Between business work, school work, and Peanut work, it's usually after Peanut's bedtime when I can post, and by then, I'm too tired to have a coherent thought in my head (like now). So, here's some of the latest Peanut pictures.

Checking out his shoes from our friend Shay.

Easter basket goodies.

What is on my head?

Easter family picture. Ignore Peanut's super ginormous eyes. It was about 30 seconds before naptime and about 3 seconds from total meltdown.

Finally, Peanut realizes tuna casserole is even more excellent when eaten with his hands. He still doesn't like mushy or soft things touching his fingers, but tuna casserole is A-OK. He immeidately went to the tub afterwards to scrub it out of his ears, hair, eyebrows, and even his eyelashes.

That's all for now. I'm off to do a little work for my last bible study class tomorrow night and then to bed.

TTFN ~Crys

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!

Quick post with a few pictures. Happy (late by 2 days) Birthday to my sister Jen and Happy Early Birthday to my sister Dee. Your presents went in the mail today.

Our St. Patrick's Day was nice and laid back. We went with Mike to an inspection that lasted about 5 minutes and earned him $125. Nice! Then we went to lunch at a really good small Mexican place we found last week. Then, instead of the Home Depot, we hit the church we've been attending for their big indoor garage sale that was going on. We got there in the last hour, but scored 3 good finds. For a whopping $18.38, we got a nice credenza that I'll use to store some sewing things in, a twin bed frame for Peanut when he's in a big boy bed, and about 1/2 yard of fabric for bag linings. The credenza ($15) needs the door put back on and some very minor tweaking, the bed frame ($3) sanded down and restained, and the fabric washed ($0.38). We'll take before and after pictures of the bed frame. It's going to be awesome when he's done.

Here's a few new photos....

Spring training game. One of the few times Peanut left the hat on his head.

YUMMM! Oreos are good.

I think Peanut watches Mommy's hand gestures when she drives. ;)

I'm off to get back to school work.

TTFN ~Crys

Felt like sharing....

Last week I went and did a claim for a shipper that was skeptical at best that I would be able to fix any of her broken furniture. These are my favorite people to deal with, well, usually they are. 99% of the time, the person ends up getting blown away by what can be done with their broken furniture...even the fugly stuff that makes you wonder what they were thinking when they bought it in the first place, but I digress. This was one of those 99% times. She had some various things that were broken and damaged, an antique clock, a dining room chair arm, a desk, a dresser, the normal stuff. Got that all fixed and signed off on, then she asked me to take a look at an old tv armoire that she had and was damaged at her last home.

The story she told me went something like this: "We bought this house, then we decided we didn't like this one particular wall, so we had the builder add in a nook that would exactly fit this TV armoire, they built it, but they built it too small, so instead of fixing the wall, they cut my armoire". Then she showed me this:


Wow, cut it they did. So I take a closer look at it and tell her, sure, I can fix that. But I'll have to do it another day as I have another appointment to go to. This lady was so happy that it could be fixed, I probably could have charged alot more and gotten away with it...damn it all to heck, hind sight sucks! Anyway, I made an appointment with her for yesterday, and went back to fix it up. At first I was thinking I was just going to use a whole lot of putty and spend hours shaping and sanding it. But when I went back, I really got to looking at it and came up with a better idea. Why not build it back up using real wood? So, I took some measurements, and ran off to Home Depot, conveniently located less than 2 minutes from her home :)

With wood in hand (tee-hee) I went back and started the process with this:


Then, filled in the gaps with some putty to make it all flow together, broke out the sand paper and gave it a nice smoothing out. Took a step back to figure out what colors to use, went to the truck and got the colors, and finished it off with this:



I love it when a plan comes together :)

Can I see your green card please?

Meet Hector. Ok, I don't know for sure his name is Hector, but he looked like a Hector while he was flying around in our garage. I don't know why Hector...get over it, thats what I named him.

Hector is a Achemon Sphinx moth, sometimes called a "Hawk moth" or "hummingbird moth", why hummingbird? I can only guess cause they are about the size of a hummingbird. And if it came down to a fight between the two? I'm taking the moth, cause he's bigger? no, cause he has more hair than a certain hairy fairy I used to work with...you know who you are. This thing has more hair than a Yak. Ok, here is Hector's last...and possibly only photo.


Yes, that's a U.S. quarter sitting next to him. I told you he was big. He was actually alot fuller looking in the body, but then Hector made the mistake of landing on my work bench, and then mocking me "what's up honky", "come over here white bread so I can pimp slap you". I've been called plenty of names in my day, and will probably be called more before its all over, but come on, Crystal was watching, I had to stand up for myself. Thats right, there was no backing down from this fight. Sure he was quicker when he was in the air, but now he was on my turf, and he just didn't know when to stop with his smack talking. I was working on building myself a furniture dolly to help move big items on my own, so I was armed with a piece of lumber. What's that you say? Use a weapon against him instead of just going hand to hand on him...did you not look at the picture? All he would have had to do is fly up plug my nose with his legs, and then cram his head in my mouth and bam, I'm done. I wouldn't have been able to breathe. Well I for one am not going out like that. I smashed his face in with that piece of wood, in fact, I hit him so hard his lunch flew out his ass and splattered all over my brand new pneumatic staple gun that was laying on the bench minding its own business, another innocent victim of the human/bug war....why cant we all just get along?

New lovey for Peanut

Easter is coming soon and I've been thinking of what I could make Peanut for his Easter basket instead of buying another plastic toy or fluffy stuffed animal that the cat overtakes and kneads into. I found a pattern for a bunny, dog, or bear at Walmart and some clearance fabric and got to work on Sunday. I finished it Monday morning and gave it to Peanut to see what he thought of it.

Finished!

Quick picture with Peanut before he started carrying it around by it's ear.

Peanut's wrastling moves.

And after it was finished and stuffed, I realized that cheap flannel fabric is cheap for a reason. This poor bunny has already had surgery to fix a ripped seam that happened while I was stuffing it. The real Easter present will be much, MUCH better and even more cuter if that's possible.

Off to do stupid school work while Peanut naps.

TTFN ~Crys

Oh so crafty!

Lately I've been sewing every second I can between school , business book work, keeping up the house (somewhat) and Peanut. I really am oh so crafy! Here's my latest creations:

Small over the shoulder bag for short trips. I probably won't use this but it's still really cute. It's just not a mommy purse for me. A wallet, cell, keys, sippy cup, crackers, wipes for when germy rude people think it's ok to touch Peanut, and loose change just don't fit in here.

Change purses for our vehicles. Large one is in the truck and small one in my car.

I pieced this quilt top over 2 years ago, Mom quilted it for me in September, and I finally got the binding on it in January. And Peanut's new thing is to crawl around like a maniac when a quilt is laid out on the floor. It's rather amusing and tiring for him.

Smallish bag I finished last night. The handles are long enough to go over my shoulder since carrying a short handled bag, Peanut, a diaper bag, and keys just isn't working any longer.

I practiced my meandering quilting last weekend and got my machine all set up for quilting. Instead of throwing the quilt sammich away, I turned it into a pillow. It's perfect for when my back goes out and I need extra support to sit.

And now for the good pics. Elliot had a lemon cookie for the first time the other night. He's like his mom and is a cookie monster now. Mike had to work this Saturday (yuck!) and the lady was so sweet to give him a tricycle her son outgrew. She also gave us a small basketball hoop for when Peanut gets bigger. Don't know why she moved across country with them if she was going to give them away, but we're not too proud to take a free toy. Here's Peanut's first trike ride. Notice his feet don't even touch the ground - hahahaha!

Helping mommy pick fabric for a new project. Peanut LOVES going through my fabric.

We've been busy. Business is going well. It's picked up and Mike's booked out for the next 2 weeks. That relieves a little stress for me since we go to our CPA tomorrow to get started on our taxes. I'm praying we break even, but a return would be suh-weet! Mike worked the last 2 Saturdays to help make up for taking 10 days off earlier this month, but it's picking up slowly. I'd prefer to see a few more jobs for him come in each week, but he keeps telling me busy season is just around the corner.

The weather has been beautiful lately. We had a couple cool days last week, 1 day only got to 61 burrr. Today was 75ish and tomorrow is suppose to be around that. It's time to break out the shorts.

This is all for now. Peanut and Mike are sleeping and my sewing machine is calling my name. Hopefully, tomorrow I will have a new project finished and posted.

TTFN ~ Crys

Happy Birthday

Happy 1st Birthday Peanut!

Well, really 1 year and 1 day today. We had a birthday party for Peanut on Sunday (along with superbowl, but I don't care about that). Mom, Dad, and our good friends Steve and Ronda from Washington/Oregon stayed here over the weekend. Mom and Dad are still here, but Steve and Ronda had to go home today. :( Mike's dad, stepmom, stepbrother, and grandma from Ohio were here for the day, too. It was lots of fun, lots of food, and very tiring for Peanut to be surrounded by so many people and so much stimulation. He napped halfway through the party and I think recovering yesterday still.

Here's a few pics from his big day.

Chocolate cake from Costco for the adults.

Peanut's very own Mommy-made vanilla cake.

Yummm! Frosting was good, cake wasn't too big of a hit, but he ate a few bites off of his spoon.
Our par-tay hats.

And this one, not on his birthday, but the first time he was in his carseat facing forward.
That's all for now. Just a quick update with some pics for Aunt Jen and the others who couldn't be here with us.

TTFN ~Crys

Ramblings

I haven't blogged in a while and had lots to say but now that I sit down to say it, I can't think of it all. Mom quilted 2 quilts for me in September and I finally got the binding on one of them. The other will have it's binding tomorrow or the next day since I got the fabric for it yesterday. It's a pinky-purpley girly quilt that I put together over 2 years ago at the Royal Ridges retreat . Lately, Peanut's favorite thing to do is "drive" his toy cars all around the floors, the walls, on me and Mike, chasing after us and Blackjack. This Tony Stewart car from my parents for Christmas is the favorite. It used to make noises and drive itself but that freaked Peanut out so the batteries came out and after a few days of staring at it, he decided it was OK to play with. There's no stopping him now and he loves to drive Tony around.



Tonight, while Mike finished the dishes, Peanut checked out the soap lid on the dishwasher. I left to get his bath ready......and came out of the bathroom when Mike said to hurry come look and found Peanut like this.
Oh, the joys of a silly baby. Peanut is doing really well. He can say 3 things: Mama, Dada (usually very loud), and Blah ja for Blackjack. He can also scream loud enough to pierce your eardrums, which makes us wince in pain but he thinks is hilarious. He can stand for a few seconds unaided, but no attempts to really walk yet other than side stepping along the couch. In 2 short weeks, he'll be 1. It's very difficult emotionally for me to really think about yet, so I don't. Instead I think about his birthday/superbowl party that Mom and Dad and Steve and Ronda are flying in to attend. Mikes parents, grandma, and stepbrother will be here also for it. So, I'm making my lists of all the things I need to do and get before they get here and that keeps my mind off the fact my wimpy white boy is going to be 1.

Our business is doing well. Mike is getting enough jobs to usually fill of the next week and doing excellent work. Peanut and I are settling into a routine during the day and usually hanging out with Mike once he gets home. Arizona probably won't be a true home for me for a long time still, but slowly I am feeling like I really just might fit in down here so far away from my comfort zone. We're attending a baptist church that is very large, yet we keep going back for Sunday service and haven't made any real attempts to find a smaller church. I don't know the differences between the Christian denominations, but it's a good church and not really any different from the Presbyterian church I used to attend other than it's much, much larger. I'm attending a Tuesday night bible study that is studying Daniel by Beth Moore. The first session was pretty powerful and left me feeling excited and wanting to dive right in to the homework part that will be discussed next week before we go into Chapter 2. It's going to be like another school course, but it such a personal eye-opener that I don't really mind the time spent on studying my bible and working on it. I'm also going to the Wednesday morning bible study that is about the women of the bible. Peanut is in the church nursery for this one, and so far, has been loving the ladies and the 3 or 4 other kids in there with him. I now have no misgivings about leaving him with them. The love they have for taking care of him and the others is so evident that it immediately eased my anxiety and I was able to enjoy the 2 times I've gone without worrying about him. Not bad for not leaving him with anyone but my parents.

I made a couple New Year resolutions, but made them really easy so I won't forget about them in 2 months. I didn't even make eating better or more exercise part of them this year. Mine are start a journal for Peanut to have when he's grown, read my bible more, try to be more patient, clean up my potty mouth so Peanut doesn't repeat me, keep up with the housework a little more, try to become less cynical about others (or at least to keep my cynical mouth shut), and pay off a couple bills. Phew, what a list, but overall, if I'm successful, I'll become a better mom, wife, friend, sister, auntie, and daughter.

And now for the downer portion of my post....Does living away from family and close friends ever get easier? After coming back to Arizona home from Christmas in December, this has been on my mind almost every day. I know meeting other people and making new friends will help, but it's really just not the same. As I put Peanut to bed tonight, I'm struck with feelings of melancholy and the guilty question of is it fair to Peanut that we moved him away from his aunts , uncles, cousins and other non-related family? Then I remember that he'd be raised by a daycare facility if we still lived in Washington and that Mike and I would be in jobs we were burned out in and really struggled to go to each day. That was not the home life we want for him, so I try to suck it up and be grateful we have the ability to fly back and forth to see the ones we love. But the answer I came up with is No, it probably won't ever get easier, I'll probably (hopefully) just learn how to manage it better.

I'm off to do school work. I guess I found what I wanted to say and boy, it was a lot. Say a prayer that Peanut will sleep better than last night and I won't have to get up 4 times before 6am to soothe him back to sleep.

TTFN ~ Crys

My friends call me tiny...

I've seen this handsome fellow many many times going to and from the bank. He and his 2 friends live on a small chunk of land right next to the roadway. I used to see them and think to myself, being a Donkey must suck. You have to live outdoors, flies bug you all day, you eat hay, you drink dirty water, you roll around in the mud for fun. Then I saw god gave them one thing that cast a ray of sunshine on their lives, and then it was clear to me, being a Donkey can't be all that bad.


We are just 12 days away from Crystals Mom and Dad getting here, then the idiots arrive the day after that. My Mom and Dad, Grandma and step brother Mike are also coming down. We are so excited, I think alittle pee might have just come out thinking about it. They are all coming down to visit for Superbowl, and another small event, Elliots 1st Birthday! It's so hard to believe that he has been with us a year already! He is growing up so fast, and getting smarter and smarter by the day. So fun to watch him learn something new, like when he uses a toy to smash the TV screen with instead of just his hand, thats fun. Or when Crystal picks him up as he has a larger toy in his hand and he decides to smash mommy in the head with it, also fun. He is a treat to have around though, makes me smile alot.

Since everyone is coming down, I decided I better get cracking and get a bed frame built for our spare bed. When we went up north for Christmas, Judy and Ernie had gone out and got a brand new bed and frame for us to sleep on, so I felt guilty and had to get going. We had got a bed for in their when they came down last October, but I left to go out of town as soon as they got here, so I didnt have time to get one done then.

So, I had a spare hour this week (inside joke) and whipped one up. Here are some pictures:

Sitting in the garage, just finished the 3rd coat of lacquer:



And in the bedroom, fresh linens and all:



It was fun to build, what isn't? Eventually this is where I'd like to see the business go, get into building some custom stuff. Last week I did a custom built in bookcase for a shipper I had gone and repaired some furniture for, the finished pictures didn't come out, way to dark, but here it is before it got painted (I still don't understand why people want to paint perfectly stainable wood:



My neighbor came over and chatted with me for a bit while I was building it too, found out he has his own business doing welding. So now I have another vendor I can use when I need some welding done, which is something I didn't have yet for work, so it worked out well.

Business is starting to pick up alittle bit, which is nice. I'm getting more and more freeway miles in. Just got the truck back in August and I'm really close to the 10K mile mark already. However, I get to see some good wrecks, and after I pass them, I thank God for making me get off the freeway to get that 44oz soda I really didn't need.


Well, it's time to go and clean up the garage now. I have only one piece of furniture out there to work on right now, and I'm waiting for some new legs that I had to order to fix it. I enjoy working on stuff, but I enjoy having my garage empty of stuff even more.

Take care everyone, those of you coming to visit soon, we can't wait to see you!

What a day...

Well, it started like any other day. Up at the crack of dawn, 6 am. Only today I could have, probably should have, stayed in bed. I had taken today off because we are getting DirectTv and today was install day, after having 3 other installs scheduled, it finally happened, but thats a different blog all together, so lets move on.I tried to go and brush my teeth, no water. Uh oh, did we not pay the bill? No, I know we did. Maybe they are working on it down the street or something, we do have alot of construction going on around us. So I head out in the living room and look at our handy dandy inside/outside/nuclear clock...21 degrees? Did we get tele-ported to Alaska? This cant be right! So I glance outside...it even looks cold. On goes the jacket, still wearing shorts and off I go to HomeDepot for a long screw driver bit that I need for my current garage project...photos and what not to follow in a couple days when I'm done with it. Damn...its really cold outside! Then it hits me...the water isn't off...the pipes are frozen!!! CRAP!Come about 11 am, the DirectTv guy shows up. "Hey, you got a leaking pipe on the side of your house, this is the 3rd house I've been too and everyone has a broken pipe". Not good. As I come around the side of the house, I see a refreshing looking pool...we don't have a pool. Then, I see a glimpse of Multnomah falls...wait a minute, thats in Oregon. This isn't just a leaking pipe, I've struck oil!!!! clean, refreshing oil..but oil none the less. I crank off the valve and shut the water off, wonder how long thats been going for...judging from the birds taking a bath in the stream of water 4 houses down, alittle over a long time.So, we call the property manager, who gets ahold of a plumbing company that does work for the builder down here...4 hours later, a portly disheveled fellow shows up...you know, your typical been around the plumbing block kind of guy. He comes over to the side of the house with me, I turn on the water so he can see where it's leaking from, and I kid you not he says "I'm not certified to work on that". Are you kidding me? What kind of plumbing company isn't certified to work on the pipes? Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of being a plumber? So, he gives me the name and number for a guy they use that is certified to work on it. A phone call and 2 more hours goes by and they call to tell us "we have you on the list, and we will get to you tonight". 8 pm rolls around, and they call us back "we are out of parts, every house we have been to today has needed a new check valve (also the part we need, sigh), we've used up all we had at the shop, so we have to get more tomorrow, will anyone be home?". Sigh, yes, someone will be home, just come give us water back!!!!I know it's not a life or death kind of thing, but being with out water sucks! I managed to take the valve apart and get it down to a slow trickle so that we could turn it back on for a bit and get in some showers (and some of us needed it more than others!) but then we had to turn it back off again. It just sucks.With any luck, tomorrow we can get it fixed and be done with the problem. Until then...we wait.On top of that, I was planning on taking the truck into the dealership this afternoon to get not 1, but 2 safety recalls done, passenger side air bag and passenger side seat belt....anyone want to go for a ride? =:)

Recovery

Well, we made it back from "home" safe and sound. It was a very good trip. We didn't get to see everyone we wanted too, including my little brother cause he had a case of strep throat, but we did get to see a few people that we missed and that was good.

While we were there staying at Crystals Mom and Dad's house, I volunteered, got drafted, held at gun point, whatever you want to call it, to help do some remodeling around their house. Actually, I had a blast doing it. That stuff never feels like work to me, its fun. We put down new laminate flooring in their hallway to tie it in with the rest of the house, then it was time to re-do the bathroom. We stripped it down like a security risk at the airport, all the way down! We ripped out the old bath tub, the vanity and a cabinet that was above the toilet. The room looked like the Arizona country side...flat and open. After plan A was a terrible failure, we went with plan B and got the new shower installed. Took us all day, but in the end, Ernie and I were at least able to shower before we went to bed, that was nice. Then bright and early the next day (the same day we had to come back home) we got new flooring down, installed a new vanity and sink and put up a medicine cabinet. We had to leave for the airport at 2:30, and we finished at 2. So I quickly showered and got dressed, loaded our bags into the car and we were off!

The flight home sucked! Elliot nursed pretty good right when we sat down on the plane and was asleep before we took off. Then, the flight crew thought it would be neat to park the drink cart right at our isle. First can of soda they opened up "phishhh" bang, he was awake...and pissed! Good job lady! I think America West hires the not so smart ones to work on their planes. I've never seen such older women (and I'm not being mean, I'm talking early 60's easy!) working a plane before. It was rather bumpy all the way back too, which didnt help anything. Then when we landed in Phx, it was raining....deja vu? So, after waiting just over an hour our baggage finally comes out...soaking wet. Apparently it sat out on the runway for sometime so the rain could get to it. Ugh, avoid America West airlines with all your strength!

So, we got back home about 12:15 Friday morning. Saturday, Big Mike called me up and asked what my schedule looked like for the week, and I told him I had a few jobs but nothing to big...then he said "good, come pick me up at the PHX airport tomorrow". He surprised us and came down to visit for 5 days. He spent 2 of them in a rental car out driving around and checking out the sites. It was good to see him again, he's a good guy. Wish I would have gotten to spend some more time with him, but maybe next time.

While he was here, we managed to get out and see the Pima Air and Space Museum. What a let down. They had some cool planes in there and stuff, but man, they sure werent very well taken care of. I know its mostly run by volunteers and what not, which I can understand, but for the price they charge for admission (13.50) they should be able to at least keep the things painted nicely. Some of them had paint running off of them that was almost exposing the skin of the planes, sad. The plane I wanted to see the most was off limits cause they were building a new hangar around it. Sometime in April they will be done building the hangar, I don't think I'll be going back.

Only 22 more days and Crystals Mom and Dad will be down here for almost 2 weeks visiting, can't wait! Mike and I found a stocked lake not to far from our house, so going to go and get some fishing tags so Ernie and I can go fishing while they are here, thats gonna be fun. Then the day after they get here, Steve and Ronda are coming down to visit also, they will only be here for a few days, but looking forward to it none the less. Everyone will be here for Elliots 1st Birthday (Superbowl too!) so we are having a big party for him Sunday. My Mom and Dad will be down from PHX, along with my step brother, also a Mike. My Grandma Grimm is coming down from Ohio, haven't seen here in forever! It's gonna be a full house on Sunday, but it's going to be alot of fun too.

I'm off to work now, have a couple go back's today then home to work in the shop...again.

Merry Christmas

This is probably our last post until we get back from home. Our suitcases are almost all packed, just waiting for tomorrow for our bathroom stuff. Gotta cram the cameras and other things into our carry-on bag and we are all set. 3 Christmas presents are sewn, 1 more is cute out and needs to be whipped together. I'll start it in the morning and finish it on my mom's sewing machine on Thursday. Then off to the store for a couple presents we're buying up there (cuz there certainly is no room in the suitcases) and then it's visiting and seeing friends and enjoying our vacation.

Tonight we had our family Christmas next to our beautiful Christmas tree. Peanut wasn't so interested after he got about 3 presents opened. He just played with his new toys and Mike and I exchanged gifts. My husband is the best, so very thoughtful and always gets me exactly what I love. And Peanut got me a beautiful sewing basket with 2 bundles of fat quarters inside that Mike says he picked out all on his own. They will make some very cute pillows for Peanut's room and for the floor for playing. He loves pillows. Loves to lay his head BRIEFLY down on them and then sit back up with his huge handsome smile on his face. This he does over and over.

I wish everyone that we won't be able to see on our visit or over the holidays a safe, warm and wonderful Christmas. Please don't drink and drive.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

~Crystal

Busy before Christmas

Well, we are only 2 days away from our trip "home" to the pacific northwest. I know this is our home now, but for some reason I can't stop calling it home up there. We are very excited to get to see people we miss, that's a given, but why can't Christmas have fallen in the warm months? We are going to freeze our butt's off! I'm still considering wearing shorts up there, til I talked to my lil brother yesterday, and he told me the high was 35! I've gone out to head to work in the mornings and had it be 35, but usually it gets up to high 60's in rather short order (no punn intended) so thats ok, but if that's all the warmer it's going to get, no way am I wearing shorts, I'll freeze my twig and giggle berries off!

I decided to try and get the garage cleaned out of peoples stuff I've been working on, so Friday and Saturday afternoons I got some serious work done in the garage.

This is 2 tables from a lady I did an inspection for way back in October. Sometimes when the Insurance companies send us out to do these inspections, they don't give us permission to do the repairs, they just want to know how much the repairs would cost. Then, they will either call us back and say "go fix their stuff", or you just get your check in the mail for doing the inspection and thats all you hear about it, when that happens, they send the shipper (thats the person whose crap they destroyed) a check based off of my report telling them how much it would be to fix their stuff. Once in a great while, people actually want their furniture fixed and will call us to come back and fix it. This last week was the first time someone actually called me back. Of course it would be one of my shippers that is at least 4 cans short of a six pack. She is a bit of an odd duck, shes alittle older, probably in her 60's, and I think a bit of a hypochondriac . She walks around in her house all bundled up like she is going to go climb the rockies or something. Anyway, she had a couple tables that got trashed, her moving truck had a leak in the roof and so alot of water got in and ruined quite a bit of her stuff, some could be fixed, some could not, or at least not for as cheap as it would have been to just buy new. Anyway, this first desk, its pretty cool. Tiny for a desk, but as best as I can tell, thats what it is. It has 2 drawers on it, one is concealed on the underside, and in fact, the shipper didn't even know the drawer was there, to bad it wasn't full of money, finders keepers! ha!

Anyway, here are the before shots:

2 Drawer desk




And now, the after:



She also had a sofa table. Cool table, not very well taken care of, but the leaking truck did it in. In this first picture, notice that the legs are black? Well, I re-did the table in black, even called her before I did it and told her I was going to redo the entire table in black so that it looked the way it used to look. "ok, whatever you think is best" was her response. Boy, I'll never trust that one again. When I got it to her house, she hated it. Cooky old bird! She then says to me "I didn't realize when you said it would be black, that it would actually be black".....is there a black out there that anyone know's about that once you apply it, it turns green or something? Holy smokes lady!!! Whatever, anyway, before and after again, you know the drill.





In an effort to get the garage even further cleaned out, I pulled a table out of a house this week to be re-finished, and am now waiting for my leather repair lady to call me back and tell me when she is headed up to this gals house so I can meet here and pay her after shes done with the work, and bring the ladies table back at the same time. So, here again, before/after.


So, that's what I did the last couple days. Now it's back to the grind, well, for a day anyway, taking Tuesday off to pack and work on cleaning up the office. Last night before Elliot went to bed, we were bringing in some still unpacked boxes from the garage and moving them into the spare room to be unpacked, its all mostly Crystals books getting unloaded onto a bookshelf. Thats the room we've moved our DVD's too until I can build us a cabinet with doors on it to keep out the boy. He got in there and went to work on the rack. It does my heart good to see him go straight for the video games, I'm going to really enjoy it when he grows up alittle and I can kick his butt at them, until he turns 5 at least, then his eye hand coordination will catch up and I'm screwed.


Well, thats it for now. Gotta hit the shower and then it's off to my next cooky old birds house. Did an inspection for her last week and got authorization to repair already. Hopefully I can get it all done today and never have to go back! I won't get that lucky. Oh well, at least its a pretty drive down to Sahaurita Arizona.