Thanksgiving Day

I lost my post about thanksgiving so I am trying again!!!!! We had a mellow day ...for us.Actually we were buying our roaster oven (for the turkey)in the morning.I was surprised stores were open.Walmart was closed and Kmart which is always empty( has become my favorite store for that reason)was packed!!!!! We bought what we needed and went home only to go back to buy another pan.Can you tell I am not much of a cook????
I mostly cleaned the house and Trent did most of the cooking with my daughters help.
We had a really nice time.It was just Trent and the kids.One day when we buy our weekend house I would love to celebrate holidays there.Anyway,I am very grateful for our house that we have.We have done alot of work for only being here 3 yrs.Last year the"big project" was installing the 700lb. woodburning stove.In retrospect we should have hired someone.The chimney pipe fell on my husbands finger and broke it, grazed my sons head and he had to get stitches.Also Trent couldn't work with his finger broken (we are both hair stylists so I filled in at his salon which I didn't even work there.)I am grateful the kitchen ceiling went well with no injuries!!!!!!! Next year we are going to finish our bathroom and who knows what else!!!!!!

Gratitude

One of my favorite holidays is "Thanksgiving Day".I even had a baby on Thanksgiving in 1997 !!!!!! That could be why it is so special!!! Everyone should a baby on Thanksgiving Day(just kidding)! Actually my neighbor had a son born on Thanksgiving Day too.Pretty weird.Anyway, this year we are staying home.We usually go to Chicago to visit with friends but since Trent is working the day before and the day after ,we decided to stay home .I will "try" to cook!!! I will probably be the helper since my husband is the one who likes to cook.Today I had so much running around to do it was ridiculous.We picked up wood for our wood burning stove.Trent,myself ,and the wood guy Larry loaded 175 pieces of wood in the mini van and then we drove home and unloaded 175 pieces of wood.Then I had to do schoolwork with the kids and finally we took the two youngest kids with us grocery shopping.They behaved at the store so I was happy.It wasn't too crowded considering the upcoming holiday.Now it is 8:00 pm and I feel like I am going to pass out.I still have to clean this house and pick up my daughter Paloma from work at 10pm.My life is crazy but I am definitely grateful to be alive!!!!!!

Decluttering

Today I saw about 15 minutes of Oprah and oh my god, it was about decluttering and hoarding . Basically a family had soooo much stuff and they had a team of 100 people that cleaned it up and made it a home.Peter Walsh, a clutter expert helped with the "makeover".I wish I would have seen the whole show.It actually was a two day special.After the show I felt like cleaning my "dressing room" .This is supposed to be my special place that I can go and get ready.Having kids there is no place that is private.I always seem to find toys and other peoples stuff in there.I can always tell when my 5 year old was in there ,he leaves evidence behind usually his hand prints on my dressing table mirror. Anyway,I realized I have a lot of "stuff" and as sick as it is I can see how people could get like that.I like to collect vintage pieces but I love throwing things out as well.(you might have read my post about throwing out the couch!!!)My husband says we keep buying the same stuff over and over again.So I am learning to "edit" my collections.Once again having 4 kids has helped with that.My teacup collection has drastically dwindled in size due to everyone breaking them.If the kids do not ruin it then my two big dogs have helped with breaking,chewing ,etc.
We have gone through two new mattresses(my dog scruffy ate one the week we bought it)So I guess I will never have the hoarding problem nothing lasts that long in our house!!!!!!!! UPDATE: Right after I wrote this post I walked downstairs and another teacup bites the dust!!!!! Scruffy's tail just broke another vintage teacup!!!!!!

Bringing Down The House

Today an abandon house that was directly behind my house was torn down.This house has been empty for years.My kids and I called it the "haunted house".The family that lived there before left without taking any of their belongings.So you would see curtains half off the window and it was really creepy!!!!! My husband and I would talk about buying the property and fixing it up but I really thought I would like to buy the house and tear it down and make the land part of our property since we have no yard.Today as I was in the kitchen I see this house being torn down.It was really exciting to see this
but it was nerve wracking because our house is only a fence away. Here are some pictures. The white house is mine.It was a close call!!!!!

Dr.Trent

This is a funny picture I found of Trent while we were in the demolition stage of the ceiling.

kitchen photos

Here are different views of the kitchen.We painted the walls a sage color and I repainted the lower sink red.We also installed a vintage stove that we had on display for the past six months.It is really great to finally use it!!!!!

These are better pictures

I am still cleaning up the kitchen and finishing with the touch ups.Tomorrow i should have time to post better views!!!!!

after photos

Here are some photos of the ceiling after it was finished.

more before pictures