First Project

OK so week one is complete and I did do a project :-) My earrings were in a little dish and all tangled up. I've been reading Pioneer Woman's blog and she is on a jewelry organizing kick also so it got me motivated. I have little room so I decided to go for something that would take advantage of my wall space (though there isn't much of that either). So taking these items -

a frame from Goodwill .99 cents, netting .49 cents, glue sticks .08 cents, hooks I had.

I took the innards out of the frame and glued the netting in its place. My original idea was to use the hooks for hoop earrings but that didn't work. Instead I used some twine and made a "swag" type thing on the bottom to hang my hoops from. I had a bunch of the same hoops, go figure. So I did a little sorting at the same time :-)

Now I have this -

I still need to do something with the post type earrings I have but this works for now. What do you think?

2011 Ideas

It's now into the first month of 2011 and I'm settling down and getting focused. In 2009 I focused on getting healthy and losing weight. In 2010 I focused on getting the kidlets settled and shifting my attention back to Manly and developing hobbies together. In 2011 my focus is going to be the HOME!

We live in a 1860's farm house and it's taken a beating with the kids. We have made this place a paradise for the boys and their friends. We have a great outdoor area with a fire pit and a basketball court. We also had a home gym with the decor themed around the local high school. The boys all had bedrooms upstairs and ours was downstairs. I have never liked the bedrooms, they are small and the lay out leaves no room for creativity. I let the boys do what they wanted with their rooms but since they are gone; I've turned one into a guest room, one into the beginnings of a guest room and one I haven't touched. That needs to change.

And you all know how it is. When kids are home you don't worry too much about "nice" things or "grown up" things, you have things that can withstand a family. I'm ready for "grown up" things LOL. The library was the catalyst. I love that room and am ready to now love my other rooms. Manly is starting to slow down now too, he's quit one of his jobs and would like to retire from all of them within 5 years. My goal then is to get this house feeling/looking like a place that can be a sanctuary for him and I but to do so on a smaller budget. We are still paying for one college after all :-)

So I'm going to make a "resolution" to tackle one project a week. Think that's ambitious? By saying projects I'm being generous. Some projects may be as simple as a craft, or the cleaning/purging of something. It could also mean the organizing of some area/job. I know I need to take my Health Coaching to the next level, I love doing it. I also will keep the other things we've started going, the traveling and hobbies.

OK, there it is. Hold me accountable and I'll post "before" and "after" pictures of those things that call for it. Ready.....Set.....Go!!!

When it's busy, it's BUSY!!!!

So my goal of being better on this blog keeps getting side tracked LOL It seems that when things get busy, it's gets busy in spades!

We didn't get to have Middle boy for Thanksgiving because of all the traveling he has done and the amount of work he would have to miss :-( We had the nephew and his family though so that was fabulous! We started a new tradition where the day after Thanksgiving, the boys all get to go to the Duck game together while us girls and kids stayed home and played. Little princess started feeling sick so our plan of seeing a movie went south. Instead, the Little Prince and I went and saw Mega-Mind, it was cute and we had fun.

Over Christmas we were to miss Eaglet and his wife because they were to go to her parent's. I was so sad but trying to be understanding ;-) Unknown to me, the ticket prices were crazy so they decided to come here instead. They were trying to keep it a secret from me but I was so sad, Manly couldn't stand it, he caved and made them tell me LOL. It was a week long celebration with all the kids and my parents staying here. We had so much fun and Eaglet's wife had her first Family Tradition Experience.

Then we had Middle son for the week after and crammed in all the activities and foods he's been missing :-). He flew home for New Years Eve and we crashed at home alone, no annual Bunko party for us, we were so wiped we were almost sick.

The week after Middle son flew home, we flew south for the BCS Championship Game! We are big Oregon Duck fans and season ticket holders. We were able to get 4 tickets so we met up with Manly's brother and his wife, also HUGE fans. We flew into Las Vegas and get a car. We swung by In 'n Out Burger then hit the freeway and drove to Arizona. We did it that way because of a couple reasons. We had a conference that we were going to in Vegas starting the day after the game and flights to the game were nuts. We had so much fun even thought the Ducks lost :-( We really had a shot, they just didn't look like our normal team. Our kids were so jealous we went, but it's just another perk of being an emtpy nester LOL

Then we drove back to Vegas, stopping to see the Hoover Dam along the way as well as the new bridge. It's about a 4 1/2 hour drive. We turned in our car and then went to the hotel to meet up with our friends. We spent 4 days there and then flew home. When we got home we were babysitting puppies while eaglet and his wife flew to visit her family.

We have now taken the puppies back to their parents and crashed again LOL. You are now all caught up on our lives. In the next post I'll get back to business, if you can call it that :-)

The really empty nest

Now that I've had time to sit and think and process, this empty nest thing isn't really so bad. I miss my kids all the time and still have to catch myself looking for them, but I'm doing OK.

When Baby Bird took the furniture, we did some rearranging and redecorating. I now have a library! I've wanted one my whole life, I love books and I love to read. I love the feel of books, the look of books and even the smell of books LOL My family thinks I'm nuts but oh well. They are now all out on display and I'm adding to the collection all the time. I have had a book club for a few years and that helps get me reading things I might not normally pick up so my collection is varied. I also set a goal for myself of 75 books to read this year and I've just changed that to 100. I'm loving this space!

Manly and I have also decided that it's now a big priority to travel and see our kids. Instead of whining about them being gone, we just go to them. We are also developing our adult friendships. So much time was taken with the boys activities that we built our entire social life around them. While that worked well then, it left us lost now. So we have traveled and vacationed with friends and I have a great group of girls, our "Goddess Group". We do all kinds of fun things together.

I'm also trying to get motivated to get the upstairs re-done. Now that all the bedrooms are empty, they need cleaning, repainting and redecorating. All of those things I enjoy. One is finished, one is in process and one is just being started.

I also have lost 75 pounds and Manly has lost 65. We are trying new hobbies that keep us active. We run, ride bikes and are starting to hike. The weather is going to start getting bad soon so we are thinking of getting some exercise equipment. I also Health Coach with the program that we lost all our weight through. It's so rewarding to help others find good health.

So the blog is going to focus more on the development of hobbies, those things we never had time for when all the boys were home as well as the revisiting of old ones. Come along for the ride and keep me company :-) I promise not to go too fast.

Baby Bird leaves the nest!

So now we come to the reason for this blog. Baby Bird has officially left the nest, he moved to another town for a different school and got his own apartment last month. The little stinker has 2 jobs, a full college schedule and is doing well. He also has a cute girlfriend that we love.

The apartment is great and we helped by giving him our sofa sectional. We also spent the time leading up to the move going to garage sales and thrift stores and after we were done, the place looked great! Of course we couldn't leave with out a trip to the grocery store to stock the shelves. It's a Mom thing.

I am now really an Empty Nester :-(

Manly turns 50!

Can this be true? Is the man I'm married to really 50? WOW where did the time go?

We had an out of control party! It was at the farm and people could bring tents and trailers to just stay put. I even flew home middle child as Manly's birthday surprise. Of course that didn't go smooth :-( They had tons of flight cancellations and he kept getting bumped, so what was supposed to be a 2 1/2 hour flight that got him in at 11:00, ended up becoming an 8 hour ordeal that got him in at 5:00. And I guess the airline called and left a message about the problems and Manly heard the whole thing, but the dear didn't tell me so I thought he was stilled getting surprised LOL

It was so fun it took me 1 full day to recover and it took Manly 3 days LOL. There are pictures and video but I have yet to get any of them (well except for one that I would never post LOL) and I'm sure that Manly is glad of that. But take my word, it was epic!

4th of July

A quick note - the 4th of July is a big deal around here, both for our town and for our family. All the kids usually come home and we make it an all day event.

It starts with the Firefighter Pancake Breakfast which we all get up and go to. A side note-there is a mandatory song that must be sung the whole drive in and as loudly as possible, good job everyone for getting your voices heard :-) Then we stake our spot and watch the hometown parade. This year, Manly and I decided to run in the 5K fun run that starts the parade. I don't know how I let him talk me into this stuff LOL. But we made it and then walked back up to watch the parade with the kids. Middle son was unable to come this year for the first time but we had just flown he and his girlfriend up to Seattle for the wedding and couldn't do it again. I missed him and cried LOL. The grandpuppy tried to get excited about the parade but could really care less :-)

Then we head back out to the farm and have a BBQ. This year Manly put on a Hot Dog Buffet and it was AWESOME! We had different dogs and tons of toppings and then all the sides and drinks. After that we go back into town and have drinks at the various pubs and visit the craft and food booths. Then it's the fireworks!

After, we come back out to the farm with anyone that wants to join and have a bonfire and s'mores. It's the perfect hometown celebration!