How about Option 2?

Let me share an actual occurrence that happened just this morning. Here we have Option 1:

It's a Perfectly Good Music Stand. Conveniently located near the piano, and also empty of any other music sitting on it. Then, there's Option 2:
Obviously, even though Option 1 (the aforementioned Perfectly Good Music Stand).... is located mere feet away, Someone at the Haven chose Option 2: leaning the music against the decorative finials on the coffee table.

Who might have made this choice? Oh, I don't know. Perhaps the owner of this saxophone:
I think I've made my point.

LOVE YOU!!!

She's UP!! Oh, she's down.

Whenever my kids do something that is beyond what I've done in my life (which is pretty much all the time, now!).... I am amazed.

So when the girls went waterskiing with Uncle Wade, and were able to get "up" on the first day -- just blows me away. I didn't have the camera that day, but Wade took them out on the boat again a week later, and even though I wasn't on the boat to take pictures, these photos are ones Wade sent me from his camera.

I am SO PROUD of my girls!!! First, here's Darcie with the tow rope. We're not sure what she's doing here. Here's Alyssa in the water, all ready to tell Wade, "Hit it!!"

AND SHE'S UP!!!!! (Like I said, these are not my pictures -- and the boat IS moving, so it's a little blurry.)


Now Darcie in the water......


And SHE'S UP, TOO!!! She did get a faceful of water, though.... and needed a break.

Later, the wind picked up, so with the water getting choppy, they didn't stay out all afternoon. Big thanks again to Wade for sharing his boat with us, and for giving my girls this experience. Can I say again how VERY proud I am of them??? LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

HGTV LIES to you!

They would have you believe that a complete bathroom remodel can happen in a half hour. Ok, so... it could happen in a week or less.

I submit to you that it takes MUCH longer. Maybe not quite as long as some of our projects take, but there is definitely some hard core time involved here.

This is the long-awaited post on our basement (boys') bathroom remodel, which has taken us 17 months and two days to complete. That's SO NOT 30 minutes. It is, however, a new bathroom record for the Haven: the last remodel took about 4 years. Yes, really. Fortunately, we have enough bathrooms in the Haven to make life managable during the construction process.

Here's one of our "after" photos. Please note, that Todd had removed the bathroom door to paint it, which actually made it easier to take my room pictures. Now to really appreciate the VAST difference, let me bare our skeleton-in-the-bathroom, and show you some of the super-icky "before" photos:

That's real wood paneling, pine cabinets (both in a glossy varnish), a chocolate-brown sink, and you can see the water heater in the mirror, which was located in a hidden door, in the bathroom. The toilet & shower were in the little room beyond, which was also separated by a door.

So I'm embarrassed to show you what the awful, AWFUL shower looked like:

It had a glass door front on it, but, um, ..... yeah. The walls of the old shower were a floral patterned tile-wannabe paneling. This product should never have been used in a shower. The dark spots are where the surface of it had come off, letting the moisture right through to the back. Most of the other dark areas are....... um, GROSS. The Health Department would have had a heyday with this.

There was more paneling in the toilet nook, and the whole floor was some nasty linoleum that was broken, torn, and peeling up. You don't want to know why the walls are so dirty. Let's just say it together: EW!!

Demolition was more fun for me than for the men of the Haven. I merely took pictures. It was some serious work for them. The counter top was SECURELY attached. This baby wasn't going ANYWHERE very easily:

We can also date the remodel by noting that Brandon, our missionary son, (he's the one in the middle!) was still home and helped with the demolition phase:

So of course, we completely gutted the whole room. Things are already looking better now:

We ended up changing the water heater to an on-demand system, and it was mounted on the wall you're facing in the photo. The door on the right does not open into the new bathroom, but gives us access to the water heater from the rec room next door. This freed up some room in the main part of the bathroom. We did not move the shower drain, the toilet location, or the sink location, but we still made some huge changes. Starting with eliminating the interior "room."

Since the Mud Room Remodel, we have been TOTALLY sold on walk-in showers. No doors, no curtains ...... they're WONDERFUL! This shower has a wider area by the shower head, and a slightly narrower entry. The photo shows the little angled wall, and the new water heater. The shower is on the left, with the entry where the ladder is, and you can also see the framing for the built-in shampoo shelf:

I can't begin to tally up how many hours Todd put into this project (with the boys helping -- well, mostly Cameron, since Brandon left two months into it). Let's just say that the tile saw really got a workout. The entire shower is tiled, plus a tiled wainscoting around the toilet. In a boys' bathroom, I will ALWAYS choose to put tile behind the toilet. 'Nuff said. There is more tile across the backsplash, and of course, the floor is tiled too.

Here's the toilet corner, and the counter's backsplash. We had the kids put their handprints & date in paint on the wall. It is hidden behind the counter now, but if the room is remodeled again at some future date, there's a few hands that will wave "hi" to the workers!!

Todd worked very hard to get the slope of the shower floor at the right angles. There are more pictures somewhere of the tiling process, but I couldn't find them for this blog entry. Oh well, it's good to edit. Here he's working on the floor:

And through the magic of several months....... Voila!! We have a fully tiled shower!!

One theme that we tied together all through the room was sqares. So, the shower head is square, the shower drain is square, the sink, the faucet handles, the towel bars, the light fixture ..... all have square ends or shapes to them.

There is no window for this room, so it's all artificial lighting. And let me take a moment to tell you that the vanity mirror ------------------ is the EXACT SAME MIRROR as was in the bathroom before!!! Yep, seriously. It did have a chip on one side, so we took it to have a glass company trim it down, and there's actually still a flaw on the glass, but it works. There is so much storage in this room now that there's no need for behind-the-mirror storage, and it's a tri-view mirror mounted directly on the wall.

This is the view from the door. This may be the last time I see it with the toilet seat in the DOWN position.

And finally, the linen cupboard behind the door. It may be a challenge to find things to fill this room's storage! But that's a nice challenge to have!

It's all just Black and White

File this one under.... an original idea (mine!) that was a HUGE success!

As leader of the Relief Society activities committee, I've had my share of winners and losers for our activities. This one was definitely a winner, and it's one of the few times I'll pat myself on the back, because this one: I came up with on my own. (Many times I copy others' ideas, tweaking them to suit myself.)

Last Thursday, we had a Black and White Progressive Dinner. Instead of progressing from home to home, we chose to do the whole meal at the church, and progress from room to room. Here are a few shots of the decorations that evening -- most of which I did myself. I was trying to really keep the costs as low as possible, to save our budget for other activities. And, I have to thank the committee members and our food committee for the evening's success, though - because it couldn't have happened without them. On to the photos!

Our greeting table! The black piece on the right is the prize for our on-time drawing. These drawings are a regular feature with us, and we are sold on the idea. It sure is a great lure to people to arrive punctually! The hydrangea blossoms came from my front yard here at the Haven, and the white pitcher was where the ladies put their names in for the drawing. (The prize this time was some desk organizer items. We always coordinate the prize with the evening's theme.)

The tables had either checkerboard or polka-dot toppers, and the white tent-cards (with more hydrangeas!) were conversation-starter questions. This was the room for the salad.We normally have 25-30 people show up, on a good night. That evening, we had 47 ladies!!
It was amazing. We had to set up an extra table for the main course.

Here are my homemade black and white centerpieces! I was going for sleek, contemporary, and definitely NOT lace & raffia. Total cost for centerpieces: $9.00 worth of spray paint. The mirror tiles were in the church closet -- cost: $0. The black cloths were $4.00 of fabric (each), that I was STILL hemming that morning. Procrastination will kill me one of these days!

Can you tell what it's made of? Those are my landscape rocks at the base, painted black and white. And yes, those are PVC and ABS plastic pipes, of varying sizes. Todd got scraps from one of his suppliers for free. This is either really innovative, or really stupid. Your choice, but it looked good!

Our speaker during the main course talked about how things are black and white, while some would want you to believe there are shades of gray. She talked about how we should "Choose the White" (Choose the Right). She also addressed the overwhelming amount of electronics and media in our lives and ways to reduce their influence.

[...I say as I'm typing on the computer for this very blog entry! HA!!]

Then, I totally lucked out with these silhouette people. They're leftover from some dance over a year ago, and were tucked up on the stage. We pulled them out and leaned them on the walls between the main course and the dessert. I think they added a lot. Cost: $0.
Our dessert course speaker was from a local upscale youthful women's clothing store. She talked about ways to accessorize and change the look of a basic black dress (or outfit). So our decorations in there were all fashion related. We added hot pink to our color theme and had high-heeled shoes and other accessories (necklaces, sunglasses, purses) on small tables. We re-used the checkerboard and polka-dot fabrics from our first room. Cost: $0. And I have to say that almost all the shoes.............. came from Alyssa's closet!!!!

Here is a quick look at the dress and her items ready for it: We got a ton of positive feedback from those that attended, so I am checking this one off as another success!

I also have to thank my daughters for all their help, too. Alys and Darce both helped set up and decorate, and Alyssa was one of our servers, while Darcie stayed home with Emma for me.

If you're interested in any other of the details on this, please post a comment! In the meantime, my committee is moving on to plans for September's activity -- which is service-related.

Life. In Assorted Snapshots.

In the last lazy, hazy days of summer, life slows down a bit for us. And it's good to take a break.

The view from the Haven across the valley south of us is wheat fields. I still love the striped look that the field rotations bring. Look closely, and you can see where they were starting the wheat harvest. This was a couple of weeks ago, and the fields have all been cut since then. Oh, and the garden has grown up quite a bit, too!

Earlier this summer, Alyssa went to our neighbor ward's Girls Camp. She was still in Driver's Ed during our own ward's Girls Camp, and could not miss Driver's Ed, so she missed most of Camp. The next ward was nice enough to invite her along with them. I love that Darcie missed her sister being gone. While waiting for Alys to return, she had a forlorn look out the front windows:

Somewhere, I have a photo of Brandon waiting for Cameron to return home from school, that looks pretty similar to this. Emma, The Copycat..... was not quite so forlorn:

But she wasn't sure what we were doing with the shampoo in the tub:

Yes, the pink bathtub is on the list of things that will be changing. One bathroom remodel at a time. The boys' bathroom is ALMOST done.... pictures to come when it's complete. You will be amazed at the change.

And one final Emma photo. She's big into being up on the counters for things. In this case, it was cooking her breakfast -- her fave is fried eggs and toast. Um.... well, the hair didn't get combed yet that day!

We are already gearing up for the school year. It's weird to have half the kids in school that I used to have. Registration comes this week, and Alyssa is in Daily Doubles for volleyball tryouts. Life marches on.

Happy Campers!

So it's been kind of a quiet, busy week. Time for an overdue post about softball camp!

This is the third year we've taken our girls to the camp put on by North Idaho College. It is four days long, six hours per day. They enjoy it, and learn a lot while they're there.

This year, since she did not pitch during her ASA season, and focused instead on catching, Darcie elected not to do the Pitcher's Heat camp. This gave her a great opportunity to learn more about catching and do some of the great drills with that group. Darcie is well on her way to being an amazing catcher, in addition to quite the utility player. She is truly well-rounded as a player.

Alyssa once again worked with the pitchers, and the pitching coach, Ron Bradstreet. (He's one of the few coaches she's got that are taller than she is!) Ron has a great way of explaining and teaching pitching, so Alyssa learns a lot from him. We are planning on getting a few pitching lessons with him this winter.

This is Ron talking with Alys during one of the pitching workouts:

On the final day of camp, before the All-Star game, all the catchers came over to the pitchers' field, so the pitchers could throw to live catchers. Darcie placed herself so she could catch off Alyssa (she is the third from the right in this photo). I'm so proud of her to be holding her own amongst catchers who are older and more experienced.

This is Darcie catching during the final game. She is still a little young to be named to the All-Star team of the camp, but she played very, VERY well.

Alyssa was named to the All-Star team again (she has played on it each year she's gone to camp). This year they gave out t-shirts instead of certificates, which is great. Alyssa was also -- once again -- the starting pitcher on the All-Star team, which is a nice esteem-builder. I'm so glad I finally got a picture of her smiling at the pitcher's position:

She was also named "Pitcher of the Camp" for the second year in a row. This totally surprised her and us, because we really thought it would go to a different girl, since Alyssa was last year's "Pitcher of the Camp". Kind of a spread-the-wealth approach. Plus, the staff is pretty familiar with her, since she's on year 3 of camp. Ron readily recognizes her, and called her by name without looking at her nametag. So she was sitting there waiting for someone else's name to be called.... and then.... she graciously accepted the award and t-shirt -- I need to get a photo of her wearing it. The black t-shirt you see is the all-star team shirt.

One more photo.... when she was running the bases, she had a dive-back to third base (she was safe!) and stopped to dust-off the field dirt:

I take dozens of photos of the girls playing softball, so picking just a few for the blog is tough for me. There are many more I could share. And this pretty much concludes our softball season for this year. There is a possibility of one more tournament, which I would really like to see her play in, because it is a college exposure tournament. It will probably depend on whether her team can be gathered together for it. In the mean time, we go back to workouts in the backyard, as both girls can work their skills with each other. (Having both a pitcher and a catcher is WONDERFUL, and makes it really easy on my knees!) We love softball!

What Really Floats our Boat

Or, at least.... what would float our boat, if we had a boat.

Since we don't have a boat, we wait all summer for someone to take pity on us, and take us out in THEIR boat. Ok, well, it's not quite as martyr-like as that, since we do have a life, ....but we really do have to depend on others to invite us to go boating.

Enter Uncle Wade.

And as a side note here, out of all their aunts and uncles, Wade is the only one who was given that title by my kids. All their other aunts and uncles were simply called by their first names. Except Wade. He was always "UNCLE Wade". Talk about charisma.

Anyway. Wade was totally cool to invite us out on his boat on one of the hottest days of the year. Todd & Cameron were working, so couldn't go... so it was us girls and Uncle Wade. We must have looked like his harem or something! It was a lot of fun, and even after the afternoon on the river, the girls still went to the water park that evening for the Stake Pioneer Day party. Talk about sleeping well that night!!

Darcie looked great in this year's edition of the swimsuit:
And had a lot of fun on the tube as well:

Alyssa gives a thumbs-up for more speed:
Emma slept a lot on the boat, but then woke up to look around. Maybe she'll enjoy it a little more next year!
Alyssa stretched out on the bow and got some sun: (She claims she's very white still, but noticed this morning that her regular makeup was too light for her face.... yeah, that's a tan, honey!)
We had a blast on the river, and you can see the kids' cousin, who also joined us for some of the time on the river. Huge thanks to Wade for sharing his boat with us that day!!