Good by Grant Line Elementary

Remembering the first day of the school year this year. Victoria was so excited to be a 1st grader.  Here she sits at the bus stop waiting on that big yellow bus to come.  This morning I woke up with an extra pep in my step knowing that THIS was the LAST time I would have to pack up a car to get her to the bus.  Oh happy day!!!

Well... we missed the bus. Addison just had to have her blankie with her in the car and that slowed her down as she needed to wrap herself entirely in her blanket and then try to climb into the car.  We ended up grabbing breakfast at McDonalds and was late for school. We really know how to go out with a bang.  :)

Things I learned while running my first (and last) Ky flea market booth

Well the Ky flea market has come and gone and I am exhausted my back is killing me but I am so glad we did it.  We learned so much.  Here are a few examples...

• The Ky flea market is NOT a good venue for us.  In the 4 days that we were there I made $24. Bummer but it was a great experience.
• Crissy and I are good booth buddies.  We bounced off of each other very well and it was a relaxing 4 days.
• Great conversations happen when bored to death at a booth that you have worked your tail off to make happen.  Good bonding.
• Awesome friends will come and visit and show their support for your work.
• Bring a good book.  Steve Tyler has kept me quite entertained.
• People watching is at it's best at the Ky flea market.
• Sales tax is not scary.
• Yard flags are way more popular than they should be along with out of date candy bars and makeup at a flea market.
• People match their roller cart.  If the bag in the roller car is striped the odds are they have a striped shirt or pants on. 
• Dogs are an essential accessory to any outfit while shopping.
• Gender determination is not always easy.
• Pack your own lunch if you don't want a tummy ache or empty wallet.
• Smaller was better when making displays. We handled them without any problem at all. 
• Packing and unpacking the car is more fun when you call the dolly the "Dahlia lama".
• Two girls a small SUV and a Dahlia lama can pack up two businesses with 3 trips to the car with big grins on their faces.
• Need to paint more trees for next show! 
• Other vendors will not go out of their way to help you or encourage you.  Seasoned vendors are kind of like a family that isn't wanting any more cousins.
• The best parking for the flea market is on the back side of the west wing by broadbent arena by far!
• Little old ladies that work at the fairground gate laugh when you lick your parking ticket and stick it on your forehead to show them your a vendor when pulling in.
• We learned to maintain determination and plan out other shows to do that are not flea markets.

We had a really good time.  Although a huge disappointment in sales we are walking away with the knowledge that the flea market is just not our venue.  People there are not wanting something "nice" they are wanting something cheap or something in a cardboard box they have to dig through.  I understand I like the flea market too for that reason.  Our stuff just doesn't mesh well with yard flags and bulk socks.  Now to concentrate on moving (June 18th Mamaw comes out) and enjoying a bit of summer.

Toothless sleep walking.

Victoria is quite excited!  She woke up this morning to find money under her pillow from the Tooth Fairy.  She almost forgot as she was drifting off to sleep reading Steven Tyler's biography. :)  She not only lost one of her teeth yesterday she lost one of her crowns she got when she was 2.  She had 8 along with the 4 front teeth pulled but now she is only down to 7 crowns.  Very excited kid plus it was the first time that she had her tooth to give to the Tooth Fairy.  She lost the others.

Last night around 9:30 as I was wandering around FB and listening to HGTV in the background I heard someone walking around behind me.  Everyone was in bed asleep and it was a bit alarming.  I turned to find Victoria just wandering around the living room eyes wide open.  I turned and asked her what exactly she was doing.  She turned to me and asked, "Can I go give mom a hug and tell her good night?"  Puzzled I asked her to repeat herself and she said the same thing. Mind you she is motioning back to my bedroom and asking ME permission to go and give ME a hug in the other room.  Straaaange!  I decided I was up for it and just told her "Sure!"  I followed her into my room and she lifted up the bottom corner of my quilt on my bed and started to feel around under it.  I guess she was looking for me.  She then grabbed the cut foils that were sitting on my bed from my hair stuff and shoved them under my quilt and patted them.  She immediately reached back under the quilt and pulled them back out and turned to me and asked "Where do you want me to put the memory game?"  I told her just to leave it on the bed.  She grabbed a comb and put it in the drawer, told me that there were no more clothes to put away and went back to bed.  I grabbed my phone and recorded it to show her this morning.  We both got a good chuckle out of it.

 I know that I sleep walk but had never encountered someone else doing it. My mom tells me stories of waking up and throwing a bottle of Vaseline at her.  She said one time I didn't want to go to my boyfriends house because it was too far to walk (I had planned on driving).  Now I just settle on eating everything in sight in my sleep.  lol

and so it begins..

Well here we go folks! The packing has begun.  I am not sure how I am going to get all of this stuff packed and have room to live in the meantime.  I believe the plan as of right now is to empty out the garage in our house and slowly start to bring in boxes from our house to start emptying out our house and start the transition.  We'll see how that works.  Until then boxes will be taking over.  The move date is the weekend of the 20th of June.  So I have about 3 1/2 weeks to go.  Prayer or strong back that travel in truck are appreciated that weekend.  ;)

Until then, I will tempt ya with a bit of my decorating I have in the works. I found this great piece of material that I am going to use in the kitchen. You'll never guess where I found it...Old Time Pottery! I know who would have thought right? But wait till you see it!  First let's remember what we are going from.  Remember the chicken coop?

 

Note the grayish counter tops and graying tile.  I am in search of the perfect paint color to go with this..

I love the soft blue tones and the greens with the yellow accents(that will go so well with my retro yellow canisters I got at Target) .  The gray swirls will go well with the counter tops.  Now any suggestions for a paint color?  Before you say let me take you into the mud room once more.  As these two room are kind of connected and I have material for the curtain in there as well.  This time coming from Hobby Lobby.  This is the wall that the kitchen and mud room share.

And here is my fabric for the curtain in there.

 This is for this window on the door.  I am thinking something along the lines of a draw up shade with ribbon ties. 

So here ya go folks.  You can see the two together.  They have the common blues, green and yellows.  The kitchen has a lot of natural light but is a bit small and I want it to appear bigger.  I am not apposed to two different colors in the two rooms.  Or even have one color in the kitchen and one in mud room with a completely different color on wall that is shared.  I am at a loss help!  Should I go with an off white and then do accent walls?  Or should I just get off my butt and pack some more?  Your right, where is my packing tape??

Gratitude

Exit 0 was such an incredible experience.  I met so many grateful people that have so much less than most people that I know.  I witnessed people in need give their extra food to others that showed up late to the meal just to make sure that nobody goes hungry.

Such awesome story... I spoke to a man that heard that Jesus loved him for the first time through Exit 0 ministries.  Shortly after the ministry started they fed this man and found that it was his birthday.  Between meals they went home and baked him a cake and their 10 year old daughter made him a homemade card written on the bottom "Jesus loves you!".  After cleaning up the tables and such they tried to find him.  After a while of looking they found him behind the Waffle house sobbing.  He had never heard of Jesus love for him and it was overwhelming to him.  He now is saved and found that his temp job has turned permanent at Walmart in Clarksville this week. 

I met another man who is a Desert Storm vet.  He was wounded while in the army his wife held his 9 month old daughter and kissed him goodbye and he never saw them again.  They were killed by a drunk driver.  He was wounded in combat and has an artificial leg and has titanium in his arm.  He lives in a Suzuki sidekick that he is trying to get moved as the city tagged it an eyesore and took his pet right out of the window while he was in the car.  He has the most positive attitude I have seen in a long time and told us that Jesus was homeless and look how much he was able to do with His life.  What an awesome view point.

I met a young girl that was pregnant and due in 4 weeks that is going in for another ultrasound as the doc has told her that the baby is extremely under weight.  Her and her boyfriend live in a trailer and are close to getting the electric shut off and have no hot water. 

I got to feed the man (Brian) that I met in church a few weeks back and speak with him a bit.  His friend, also homeless, got a car and gave him his old bike so now he has some transportation.  He was really excited about it.

Such gracious people, such stories, such an eye opener.  I went with the intention of blessing people and showing them Jesus and I learned more than I could ever have shown them. 

Our 58 year old Grad!

We couldn't be prouder of our Mamaw!  At 58 she is a high school grad.  She worked her butt of going back to school to get her GED.  She told me last night that she left school during her sophomore year.  How awesome so many years later that she went right back and finished her education. What an inspiration to her grandkids that it is never too late to achieve a goal.  We all wished Papaw could have seen her in her cap and gown.  He was so proud of her. 

After the ceremony we had a reception for her at her (soon to be ours) house.  So much fun to throw a party and get a feel for how to entertain in our home.  I got so many compliments on the food that I worked so hard on and my chicken salad disappeared quickly.  One of her friends told me that my chicken salad was better than McAlisters.  I was beaming!  We enjoyed the back deck and James and I leaned on the rail and dreamed of what we wanted to do with our back yard.  Talks of a new swing set with the fort are already in the works.  The kids will be thrilled.  Such a fun night of laughing and reminiscing.  We didn't get home until 2am.  Mamaw knows how to party! 

Rio

I took the kids to see Rio today and Grandma and Grandpa joined us.  The kids were so excited to get the popcorn snack tray with the pack of Gummy bears and a drink in a cool little holder.  They carried them around like trophies.  :)  The movie was even cuter than I was thinking it would be and provided many laughs.  It was the perfect day to put on some comfy clothes and sit in a dark theatre.

A punch in the gut called reality

This morning I was needing to plunge the toilet due to excessive toilet paper use of preschoolers.  In the middle of the process with water up to the rim of the bowl Anthony decides to come in, drop his pants, and proceed to pee right on my plunger.  I look down at him and he responds to me be looking right back up at me and saying "Hey I am peeing here!" then his attention goes right back to his current activity.  So funny. Apparently I was in HIS way.

Last night after service we ate at Northside Cafe.  They have food there for $1 and we usually take advantage of it in between services when I am working upstairs.  I was in line and noticed the people I was in line with had a coupon.  I proceeded over to the baked potato bar and a man followed me and we struck up a conversation about baked potatoes.  We talked about working in kitchens in our past.  He then said "I can't believe the situation I am in now.  I used to cook high dollar steaks and now I can't scrounge enough change to buy juice in the morning." He then went on to tell me that he had been out of work for over 3 years and told me that he didn't have a place to stay.  I asked if he knew about Exit 0 our homeless ministry and he said that he had been going to their dinners since the ministry started. I handed him my money in my hand and told him to go and get him some breakfast in the morning. 

 I stood there with my hamburger and baked potato for myself and food for my kids and I couldn't help but think of how easily I opened up my wallet and grabbed some money that was easily accessible to me and paid for food that was dirt cheap to me and had a conversation with someone that was able to eat only because he had a coupon.  Who was I?  This could have easily been me or anyone that I know.  I have spend 3 weeks complaining about stupid carpet color and this man looks for a safe place outside to sleep.  I felt so convicted of my selfishness that I had to make my way to my table quickly so that he couldn't see my emotion that was pouring over me.  I just felt horrible.  God has blessed me immeasurably and I have been standing around with my arms crossed saying "But God, the carpet, the wallpaper.."  and God has been saying "Hey I'm trying to bless you here." It took a good punch in the gut of reality to see how selfish I was being and how much I was overlooking how blessed I was.  I am sorry my words have been used with me complaining about how much I want to change about the home and not about how extremely excited I am about how God is blessing my family. 

The soon to be new casa!

Here it is the soon to be new home!  I am going to attempt to give you a photo tour of the home so that you can see what our new space will look like and see how much work we have ahead of us. 

She already had the landscaping looking really good so not much work there except removing concrete lawn ornaments.  I realize that my husband's nickname is Buddah but I am not too keen on having a concrete Buddah in my front yard.  You can also see the little pond/fountain surrounded by rocks behind the hastas.

I am trying so hard to talk her out of this lawn furniture.  I tease that I am going to glue it to the (soon to be painted another color than crayon green) porch so that she can't take it with her.  :)

Alright now we are in the front door. I'll just get this out of the way.  I hate this carpet with a passion but until we can afford to replace it I have to deal with it.  :/ Straight ahead is living room, door on left will be drywalled to create a bedroom for A & A out of the now dining room.   The hallway extends down to the left past dining room door and leads to the bedrooms and bathroom.  The door on right leads to the kitchen and a small closet is between kitchen door and living room.

We are now turning right into the kitchen. It was recently updated to include new cabinets, counter tops, floor and a crap load of chicken decor. Wall paper removal Mission #1 (more the make you follow please grab trash can in preparation of the master 1/2 bath soon to follow) This kitchen has awesome light.  The porch window is the kitchen window so there is a ton of natural light.

This is opposite wall of kitchen.

We have now turned and are looking at the wall that runs to your left when you walk into the kitchen.  The door that you are seeing leads into the living room and the framed door is the basement door that is in the mudroom.

Step down into the mudroom.  Garage door on left next to basement door and door on right leads to front of house.  Cabinets will be turned into pantry and I am really wanting one of those bench seats to put next to it with coat hooks above for a coat/hat/shoes zone. 

This is opposite side of room. Freezer is going to stay and I am working on getting it moved to the garage and maybe moving computer to this corner maybe...

Gulp! The garage.....Please pray! 

We are now moving down to the basement.  This standing on the bottom of the steps.  Cool built ins that I will be painting.  Extra closet to my left out of view under stairs.  To the right is a cabinet that is blocking the view of the door to the utility room that will eventually be the home of Artistic Praise.

This is around the corner walking through the basement.  The basement flooded and the new carpet is going in sometime next week.  :)  I chose a medium brown not too dark not too light.  Behind the TV is the doorway to the bedroom downstairs.  This may be the home of Artistic Praise until I get the utility room where I want it in terms of ....well you'll see.  This room will be a playroom until I get out of the basement bedroom. 

This was James room while he lived in the house. This room is pretty big.  Paneling will be painted STAT!  Not a fan.  Great big closet too!

Good storage! The house has tons of storage space.

Now onto utility room.  This room will make a great studio.  I will be painting the walls and want to do a lot of curtains hanging from floor joists to hide shelving and washer and dryer. This room is broken up really weird so it will take some creativity to utilize the space the way that I want to.  Furnace/washer/dryer/ pipes are all spread throughout spreading across the space but the sink in this room will be great for projects!  I am sure I can come up with something.

Another awesome area for storage. This is one the left side back of the utility room.  Alright now that we have completed the right side kitchen mudroom basement combo we will again enter into the front door and begin the left side. 

This will be the twins room.  Doorway will be drywalled to close it in and you can see through to the kitchen and mudroom.  Note that chandelier will be taken down to put more bedroom appropriate lighting in.  This will not be thrown out.  I have plans for this bad boy!

Main bath.  Big tub with jets.  :)  Large vanity and a laundry shoot in the bottom of the vanity.  New flooring that was completed when the kitchen was remodeled.

Master bedroom.  I like that it has a fan but there is another problem with this room other than my favorite carpeting throughout.....

The half bath where the tragedy occurred. A couch exploded and landed perfectly flat on the walls.  Yikes!!  More wallpaper to remove STAT!  Did I mention that wallpaper is to be removed in both bathrooms kitchen and dinning room?  Jill I may take you up on that hanging out to help with the kids on that one.  ;)

This was Papaw's room and will become Victoria's room.  Good natural light and will be painted yellow and green that she has now. 

Opposite wall of bedroom. Think I might use this area for her green wall and put her a desk in here for her to do her homework and draw.

Now into the living room. Straight ahead is the fireplace and some more of that lovely wood paneling that must have been on sale the day they built the house.  More paint!  I am even thinking of painting the fireplace too. I have seen some pretty impressive before and after pics of painted fireplaces.  Can't wait to put my Willow tree figurines on that mantel.

 

Turn to the right in the living room.  Doorway that mother in law is standing in is the one in the kitchen that you saw earlier and french door to left where white curtain is leads to back deck.

More of that lovely green paint from the front porch!  This will be painted brown I believe.

Back view of the house.  You can see storage shed with massive amounts of space and ride on lawn mower that will come with house.  :)  Green trip on shed will be painted to match the deck too. 

Here they are!  My newest prize possessions, Papaw's rose bushes.  They are in the front yard along the left of the house.

Mental block

If any of you have know me more than a week you know that I don't deal well when I am spread thin.  I work well under pressure if I have pressure coming from one area but if it is from multiple areas I am spent!  The flea market is stressing me out trying to figure out a way to make a display to hold my pieces that will fit in our area we have reserved.  I am planning a graduation party for my mother in law next weekend. After a lot of hard work she is getting her GED.  We are so proud!  Then there is the move.  I am so stinking excited about moving yet I haven't packed one thing.  Our space is so cramped and my craft stuff has taken over our bedroom (that is soon to change :) and I just can't seemed to focus on one area and get it taken care of.  I need to pick out carpet for the basement and trying to figure out color schemes for the house (Yes I know carpet to replace the carpet that got ruined in basement due to flood necessary, color scheme for whole house/not necessary). Plus I have some special orders that I need to get working on for Artistic Praise.  I have deadlines hanging over my head and my brain is collapsing.  I just need to focus on the Graduation party and the custom orders and then move onto the flea market display for the following weekend.  Oh and I need to start working on these things instead of sitting at the computer desk.  Got to get motivated!

Happy Mothers day

Boy did my husband earn some brownie points this Mother's day!  He got me a Willow tree figurine.  Not only did he get me one he picked a new one that I didn't know was out called "Welcome Here" for our new home.  Of course I cried!  He surprised me by asking me to get the one last bag in the truck as he was unloading all of his stuff.  I opened the truck door and found the Hallmark bag.  I knew exactly what was inside.  I am in love with her.  I just think that they are so beautiful.  I will be keeping her in her box until she has her permanent home on my fireplace mantel.  :)  Do you notice the flowers behind?  My Mother in law cut some flowers for me from Papaw's rose bushes.  Again iimmediate tears.  They are so full of blooms! So proud that they will be in my front yard.

Now I know that most women wouldn't get excited about how I spent my Mothers day but I had a blast, literally!  James took me shooting.  His buddy Jason lives out in New Washington and we used his back yard a few haystacks and frozen milk jugs.  We geared the kids up with their ear plugs..

Victoria ready for the show.

 Anthony was in hog heaven as Amy, Jason's wife, gave him a bag of chips.  I teased him and told him he looked like the honkers on Sesame Street with the horns coming out of his ears.  He couldn't hear me tease him though.  lol

 Addison didn't want to wear hers until we told her that they were ear plug earrings.  Then she was all about it.

 After a ride around the yard in their golf cart to go see the fish in the pond Addison grabbed a hat she found in the house and started to pose.

After a few shots she just started getting silly.  The kids had so much fun playing in the back yard, "camping" in the back of the car watching the show, and were really well behaved the whole day.  I am so proud to be a momma and enjoyed a day of good ol country living fun and time with my family.  I am a blessed woman!