from the big family shoot (thanks kyle!)

afters

Here are the before and after shots of the ceiling fan. We spent around $30 on replacement parts and then disassembled and painted the rest. It was an easier project than I thought it would be.

And here are the before and after shots from the breakfast nook. Obviously, it is a completely different fixture. We decided to say good bye to the torch ensemble all together. We found the other fixture in the basement. It was all shiny brass, except for the frosted glass dome. We painted all the metal parts- the chain and the cord included. This light put up a bit of a fight at installation and some of the paint scratched and flaked off. I revisited the directions on the spray paint can, and it recommends lightly sanding glossy surfaces. This probably would have helped. So, we'll have to touch it up a bit.

Much. Better.

Here are the kitchen drawer pulls that have been painted. I am rather fond of them. I think they pull in the color of the flooring nicely. Cori wants to try them in the darker chocolate color we painted the lights with. This would look nice too, a lot more contrast for sure. One nice thing about the spray paint is that it is very cheap to experiment.

A side-by-side with the original hardware. So far, we haven't had any problems with the paint waring off or flaking with daily use. The metalic finish RustOleum dried a lot faster and seems to have adhered a bit better than the satin finish.

And now I keep looking around the house thinking, I wonder what that would look like painted... I already have my sites set on the dining room chandelier. :)

Us lately

I haven't spent much time on the computer of late... Following is a little recap of our lives the last couple of weeks.

We've been under a frozen fog for the last two days. Frozen fog? The midwest in all its crazy winter idiosyncrasies never ceases to surprise. The temperatures have actually been warmer than average (though still pretty chilly) and branches everywhere are crusted with frosty jewels. So lovely.

Cori has been THE MAN. Last weekend, I hosted our reading group on Friday night and then a baby shower the next morning. (pictured below: a shot of the baby shower brunch buffet. My dear friend, Rondee, flipped buttermilk pancakes for 2.5 hours to feed the nearly 30 women who showed up. We had so much fun.) Cori helped me clean the house and then he packed up the kids and evacuated them on both occasions. This is made more impressive by the fact that there is nothing to do in our little town during the winter. It is too cold to play in the snow. There are no indoor places of note to visit. So they walked around WalMart and home improvement warehouses for two days. This weekend, he took care of Saturday night bath time while I was napping on the couch and he did dishes every day. He takes such good care of me.

We purchased our tickets for a little ski trip in February. My parents have a place right on the gondola at Heavenly, Lake Tahoe. It is the perfect ski scenario. Grammie will get some quality time with the kids. We get to practically ski in and ski out. We have some favorite restaurants to visit. And we'll be spending the evenings in the hot tub. Yes, we are counting down the days.

We've also dug into a few projects around the house. Our place is full of brass fixtures. All the drawer pulls, door hardware, and fixed lighting have a shiny brass finish that not-so-subtly betells the decade of installment- namely, the 80's. It is always a hard call for us when it comes to updating house fixtures. We know that we won't be in this house for more than another year. It is hard to dump money and effort into some one else's future home. But we have a realistic view of the housing market around here, and want to put our best foot forward when the time comes.

So we priced out some lighting and drawer pulls for the main floor. Then, as we were perusing Menard's, we picked up two cans of RustOleum- one with a burnished antique bronze finish and the other a satin chocolate brown. We just figured if we were going to replace all these things outright, we might as well see how they look spray painted first. Then, rather than replacing the whole ceiling fan, we bought a replacement for the light globe and have disassembled the rest of it and spray painted it all. We have been pleasantly surprised with the results so far. For under $50, we have new drawer pulls in the kitchen, a new light in the breakfast nook and a new ceiling fan. I'll post after shots once we are through, but here are pictures of the breakfast nook fixture and the ceiling fan that we are replacing:

Reading Report

Undaunted, Gerald Lund

This is the newest Lund book focussing on the stories of the Hole-in-the Rock Pioneers. I had never heard these pioneer stories before. They were a group of saints called to leave St. George and build a settlement on the outskirts of civilization in Arizona. Their purpose there was to serve as a buffer between settlers both within and without the church population and the native americans who were becoming increasingly (and, in my opinion, understandably) more hostile as they were being forced off all their land. Because of the danger posed by the native american tribes in the area, the saints had to travel a very round about route to get to their destination. They literally blasted their way through the red rock of southern Utah, and at one point, built a dirt road along the side of a cliff. I found the actual history in the novel quite fascinating. BUT, it was over 800 pages long. I haven't really read Lund's work before, but I was pretty unsurprised to find the enivitable plot devices usually found in these kinds of books- the convert story, the obvious (as in, predictable from the reader's first introduction to all the characters) love triangle, and the tidy ending including a wedding and the whole crowd lifting their arms to heaven and shouting glory to God! All that said, Lund's research is very impressive. There are pages of notes at the end of each chapter where he makes clear which parts of the narrative are history and which are of his own devising. And, the first few hundred pages of the book take place in the coal mines of northern England, which kinda got me hooked on it. I felt like I learned a lot about these brave pioneers, even if some of the telling of their story seemed a bit corny (in my humble opinion).

Peace Like a River, Leif Enger

I LOVE THIS BOOK. It is really so good. I tried telling everyone I could about it while I was reading it. Whomever I was talking to would ask me, "Well, what is it about?" To give any kind of plot summary about this book is to make it sound like the dreariest and most depressing story ever written. I've decided that what makes the book so magical is how all the characters live through the misadventures that come their way. I smiled my way through most of it, I'm sure. The characters are meaty and very unique. The story will lift the spirits before it is through. This is a book I would recommend to anyone and will read again and again.

Pirate Latitudes, Michael Crichton

This was a quick read. It felt like reading a very gritty version of Pirates of the Carribean. Many of the locations were the same- Port Royal and Tortuga... The time period was the same. A lot of the same seamen's myths were present- the gloriously huge craken (giant octopus) makes an appearance, and the governor's niece is nearly thrown overboard during a storm because it is bad luck to have a woman on board. The story and characters seemed a little thin for Crichton's standards- but I have since learned that it was a posthumous publication- so perhaps he wasn't finished fleshing it out before he died. In anycase, my favorite parts of this read were the executions of the detailed and daring plans wherein something always goes not-as-planned and all is nearly lost only to be saved by the cunning hero. True to Crichton's style, it read like a movie. It is a book that is not for everyone- it is a bit gory and there is some sexual content. But it is an adventurous swashbuckler for certain.

The Life of Our Lord, Charles Dickens

I was very surprised by this little book. It was originally written by Dickens for his children. His youngest son, Sir. Henry, stipulated in his will that upon his death the manuscript could be published if the rest of the family was in accord. It was first serialized in London in 1934 and then later published into a book. The manuscript was handwritten and all published versions of it have included Dickens's irregular capitalizations and punctuation. It makes the book feel more personal to me. I only learned after reading it that this was a favorite of our late President Hinckley. He said:

All of us love Dickens's immortal A Christmas Carol. But The Life of Our Lord, written in a very personal way, without adornment or flights of fancy, for the children he loved, carries with it a compelling admonition that has within it the power to change the world: "Remember!-It is christianity TO DO GOOD always- even to those who do evil to us."

President Hinckley was in England at the time of the manuscript's serialization there, and then later his wife bought a copy of it and they read it often as a family. It is a wonderfully compact narrative of the life of Jesus. All the details that are known of his mortal life through the Bible are woven in. All the miracles, all the parables, all the conversations are there. I actually learned a few things. I highlighted sections that didn't sound familiar to me and then went to my scriptures, and sure enough, they were founded.

From a literary perspective, there were a few things I really appreciated. It is very simply written. Dickens, who has such flare for characterization, left the character of the Savior alone and let Jesus' actions and teachings define him. Also, throughout the book, he gives little admonitions to his children. At one point he asks them if they have ever seen a camel, and if they had not seen one, he would take them. I thought it was so cute. Anyway, in these paragraphs he instructs them never to judge anyone who is poor or mean, because maybe they never had anyone to love them or teach them the right way. Maybe they never had enough to eat or a place to live. He reminds them that these people were most important to the Savior and so should they be to us. During these paragraphs a little parade of all Dickens's protagonists was floating through my mind. His signature rags-to-riches and redemptive style of character transformation has a deeper significance in my mind now that I know that it was his faith in the Lord that made these kinds of developments possible. I have ordered a copy of the book and hope to make it part of our family tradition to frequent it. It is a wonderful Christmastime read.

dinnertime shenanigans

image diary 1.6.2010

Here, insert mental images of the following:

Grace throwing a fit and refusing to participate in her first swimming lesson, insisting that she is "shy of her teacher" Mr. Brandon.

Grace eventually agreeing to sit on the side of the pool and practice kicks.

Me wanting to take a picture but fearing the judgement of the other parents sitting nearby.

At the end of the lesson, Grace finally getting into the pool and selecting a squirty octopus toy to play with.

Grace using the octopus to squirt Mr. Brandon square in the face, an assault to which Mr. Brandon responded perfectly causing Grace to laugh fitfully and thus endearing himself to her (hopefully at least until next week's lesson).

Grace following Mr. Brandon around for the next 10 minutes and giving many high-fives before getting out of the pool.

Grace telling me how excited she is to go to swim lessons next week so she can show "all [her] friends" how she can put her head under the water.

From the archives: Jazz game, January 2005

Blessings

This photo pretty well sums up how we have all felt this week. It has also been {below} freezing nearly every single day since we've been home. Consequently, the week's activities were limited to: quiet days at home, one afternoon of putting away Christmas decor, a very quiet new year's celebration (we had pizza with the missionaries, put the kids to bed early and watched a movie), and an uneventful new year's day. Other things I'm especially grateful for this week:

• Cori's employment. We had our 2010 financial summit wherein we reviewed and averaged our expenditures from last year and projected our budget for the year ahead. We've got a lot of travel on the calendar. Hopefully a new baby too (not pregnant yet though). We are whittling the budget down in a few areas and may kick our satellite service. But even when things look tight, we are so very blessed by Cori's hard work and the income he receives for it. And I feel immeasurably blessed to be at home.


• How does the song go? "And mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again..." Mostly for Gracie's sake, I'm glad school starts up again tomorrow. I love having her around, but I think she's getting a little stir crazy. Grace will also begin swim lessons this week and she is so very excited.


• 2009. I think I will always remember this last year in a lot of detail. I was given a special opportunity to work on myself inside and out. Likewise, Cori and I feel like we've made some great improvements in our relationship-which was pretty swell to begin with. I'm very grateful for all that I experienced last year, and even more grateful for the start those experiences are giving me in 2010.


• This will sound very trivial in comparison, but I am so happy that Disney finally produced another movie in their classic, hand-animated, music filled format. We saw The Princess and the Frog this weekend and LOVED it.