Sigh.

I heard Mitt Romney's speech last night on the radio as we drove an hour home from a soccer game.  It was a good speech.  It'd be great if he could actually do all the things he promised, but they all say that crap.   I'm still not voting for him.  I don't want to vote for Obama either.  I don't think anyone will cooperate with him just like in the past few years and nothing will get done.  It seems like anything good he's tried to do has been roadblocked and I don't think that will change.  I don't know who I'm going to vote for.  The only reason I will vote is so I can have the right to bitch later. 

Unsurprising newsflash:  I wish Bill Clinton was running for president again.  I'll say that every election year until I die.  He's the man!

Senior Pictures

Photos courtesy of Jason Abney, Through the Glass Photography

#1 (this is the one the photographer posted on his Facebook website)

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6 Like this one

#7

#8 One of my favorites (same pose as above but the editing a little different)

#9

#10

#11

#12

#13  Love this one too.

#14 one of my favs

 Email me and let me know which one and what size you'd like. 

Amy

Happy 18th, Robbie!!!

At 4:25 pm today, Robbie will be officially 18 years old.  Bob is still working on the doors and I didn't want to stop his forward motion, so instead of asking how to scan pictures I just took pictures of pictures from a scrapbook for this post.

Checked into the hospital around 10 pm on August 27 and below I am relaxing the following morning after FINALLY getting some good drugs.  ha ha!!  I'm on the phone with somone.

Dr. Graham delivering my very chubby baby boy.  The candy man, as I called him, Dr. Patel, is over near the curtain.  Loved him!

Robbie, conehead and all.  LOL!!

Dad visiting us in the hospital.  Look at how young you look, Dad!!!

At Mom's apartment when Robbie was 9 days old and I ventured out to drive on my own for the first time.

Me visiting Robbie at the hospital to nurse him.  He stayed in until Sept. 1 for jaundice.  Nowadays they would have just sent him home with one of those bili-blankets I think.

Grandpa Henning and Robbie

Grandma Henning and Robbie

Love this picture of us! 

Anyway, I'm the mother of an adult man now.  That seems so weird.

I started Robbie off with his breakfast of choice, Monkey Bread,  and then we are going to take he and Kaylyn out for dinner this evening.  He didn't really want a party this year but did ask for a birthday cake from Coldstone.  I've missed baking a specialty cake for him but with all the family room crap going on I decided to just get what he wanted and make it easy on myself :) 

I'll post some birthday pictures later this week.

Day 21 Update

This is what the downstairs hallway looked like the day we got started...3 weeks ago.

Sometime a couple weeks ago after we primed...

Yesterday after Bob got new doors installed...

So much brighter!!!

Today I will caulk and paint the doors and trim and Bob will install the new door handles. We bought some that match the decorative metal on the light fixtures.  The only door we chose not to replace is the one to the a/c-hot water heater closet. Those have to be special ordered and can be expensive.  We are going to repaint it ourselves.  We got the other doors on sale at our home-away-from-home, Menards. 

I cannot believe this project started over 3 weeks ago and we still aren't done!  But, the family room looks so good and all the hard work has been worth it. We did take a break on Friday night and just chilled out in the sofa recliners and watched a movie.   Yesterday we went to Robbie's soccer game then got back to work.  It's all those little things that take time.  For instance, I thought I would whip on the paint after the doors got hung last night, but first the nail holes had to be filled, sanded, door trim caulked and dried before I could pull out the paint. We called it quits about 9:00 and decided to start up again this morning after breakfast.  HOPING, that all gets done today and we can be finished except for decorating stuff. 

On the Brink of Exhaustion

Today is day 19.  We are still not done.  Purchased new doors and door handles last night.  Bob got one door hung; well sort of.  I resent the cat for getting to lay on the new sofa.  Taking the night off for a soccer game will hopefully bring some new-found energy to get completed by Sunday night.  I'm ready for a pajama day!

Day 15...

Even Lucas is getting tired of this home project.  He is depressed due to lack of attention because we are too busy doing other things.  Here are some unedited pictures for a quick look:

Here is what the "family room" side of the downstairs looks like today.  We love this sectional.  The two end seats are power recliners.

Still need window treatments, pictures and nick-nacks put back in their places but you get the idea.

View of tv from the corner seat of the sofa.

View from tv to opposite side. 

The "office" side of the room earlier last week.

A few days ago.

Sunday night after we finished painting. Bob added the nice trim to the sliding door after I took this picture.  Looks even better than this picture shows.

I have a lot of decorative stuff to add but really it looks SO much better than before, right?  We cannot get over how much more room we seem to have and more light with the nice ceiling fixtures. The hallway is done with the except of new doors.  I still have some caulking to do, painting quarter round and trim but all of the really labor intensive stuff is DONE!  We are hoping to get new carpet next summer.

We are now officially ready for NFL Sundays to begin!!!

Robbie

Robbie on the first day of his last year in high school a couple weeks ago.  Nearly 18 years old!

Breakfast of Champions:  Caramel Glazed Monkey Bread.  This was his request  for breakfast that morning.  I used a new recipe and it was better than any I've tried.

Robbie and Kaylyn relaxing in the hammock she bought for him this summer.

The family room is just about finished.  I will be filling nail holes and painting trim here in a little while. We still have to put up new doors but that will wait a couple more days.  The paint looks awesome!!!  I was going to have an official unveiling of our new room for Robbie's birthday but with soccer and Bob working overtime it will be difficult to have a get-together at our house for the next several weekends.  If you want to see it you'll just have to call and make sure one of us will be here and stop on by.   I'll post some more updated pictures in a couple days.

Neverending Story

We are finishing week #2 of the family room renovation. We. are. not. done. yet.  Just sayin'.  We started side two of the family room two nights ago.  Still need to prime another time, paint two coats then put up trim and caulk and paint that.  Also still need to install 4 doors and install that trim, caulk and paint.  Oh and shampoo the carpet and hang stuff up.  And look at curtain fabric and get those made.  Oh and Bob is going to spruce up the DVD shelves and I will stain it before reinstalling.

The list never ends.  Maybe someday we will be able to sit and relax on our new sofa.  ha ha!

This Old House

What started out as purchasing a sectional sofa has led to more than a week of hard work here at this old house.  We're not done yet.   I am exhausted as I write this.  Thankfully, I am off work today so can take some time to relax...although I do have some painting to do later.  Ugh.

Here is the family room when we got started.  Remember what it looks like because it is very different now :)

Doom and gloom.  Wish I could've talked Bob into painting that wood years ago.

Well, might as well take down the ceiling and replace it too.  ha ha  The domino effect.

Up goes nice, new ceiling tiles.  Probably the easist part of this project. Bob scored a new power staple gun for this project.

Relocating electrical stuff and installing new lighting.  I think this is my favorite thing in the room.

Above, time to start priming those nasty walls.  The first primer we used took 5 coats to hide the stains, etc.  We finally got another type of primer and only had to use 2 coats on the other walls.

Below,  this is what those wall boards had on them when we bought this old house.  Since then we covered them with green paint and merlot paint. Isn't it funny how people decorated in 1969?  ha ha

Ah, finally we see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.   Starting to add new color to the room.

Our choices are called Pony Tail and Amaretto.  The wall boards and the hall are Pony Tail and all wood is Amaretto.

Get up Bob!!! We're not done yet.

Bob the Plumber.....installing quarter round...

Ceiling trim... (he also scored a new circular saw with a stand for this project which means he can now do this for me in the living room and upstairs hall---but I'll wait to ask him after soccer season is over)

Chair rail....

Window trim...

Oh, and more painting.

Can you believe it?!?!   The sofa will be delivered around lunch time today.  I'll post some more updates in a few days after we get some other things done.  Still have to get new curtains, lamps, rugs, artwork, and start on my office area.  Yes, you heard me correctly.  We haven't even started on that side of the room but have nearly everything we need to replace the ceiling, trim, etc.