June 1 - June 7

Sunday, June 1: Sunday was our stake conference.

Happy girl in the nursery! She's probably a bit old to be playing in here during a church meeting :)

We were pretty stoked about having an hour off church! We took advantage of the extra hour by hiking in South Dallas to a beautiful lookout point over Trinity River.

Bronxie does not like heights.

We saw this family canoeing, and now that is all Tyler wants to do this summer.

Tuesday, June 3:  We had doctor’s appointments scheduled for the kids, which I happily delegated to McKay.

While Dr. Clifford (real name!) looked them over, McKay tried to prompt Tyler to brag about being healthy and fit with his running club at school: “What do you do on Thursdays, Tyler?” Before he could answer, Jamie shouted: “DONUT DAY!! We get DONUTS!!” Haha!

Wednesday, June 4: I did something today I’d been wanting to do for almost three years: a bathroom makeover! Our bathroom was old. The walls were crumbling, there were no baseboards, and the whole thing was painted matte brick red.

These were "middle" pictures, with the framing already done, but you can still see the awful paint. Blech. So dark and moody.

Matte! Every single fleck of toothpaste or water showed up, and washing the walls just made it worse. It started out with an idea from Pinterest (where else, I ask you?), and progressed into measurements, plans, and a big old shopping trick to Lowe’s. After a very long day of measuring, cutting wood, framing out the walls, measuring again because the foundation is weird and I didn’t account for the top width of the wall to be longer than the bottom width of the wall, re-cutting, nailing, caulking, and painting, painting, painting, we have a bathroom that I love just shy of how much I love my kids.

We've since finished up the last bits near the ceiling.

Board and batten, in all its glory! I couldn’t get great pictures because our loo is teeny, but I tried my best to show it off :) Afterwards, I took the kids to get ice cream as an “I’m sorry the TV mothered you today”. There was a YW pool party at the O’Banions that night that I showed up to sweaty and paint splattered, but had a really nice evening talking with friends and teasing our very good natured youth. Back at home, I was up into the wee hours of the morning finishing painting the bathroom with McKay while we listened to the Comedy Bang Bang podcast.

I love this man!

I found this at Lowe's; it's air freshener that you add to the paint while still in the can, and once it dries, it works for months. Between this, and finally closing off all the holes where baseboards should have been, the bathroom has never smelled so nice!

Thursday, June 5: Donut day! We had a fun playgroup at the Montagues, painting and sprinkler play.

Friday, June 6: We had Eve and Milko and their kids over for dinner, and it was so nice to catch up with them! Our respective lives were whirlwinds this last semester, so it had been a while since our last get together.

Ribs, mashed sweet potatoes, garlic bread, and macaroni for the kids. Yum!

And a delicious Tres Leches cake from Eve and Milko.

They were very good sports and oohed and awed over my bathroom when I prompted them too. I picked up a few fun things at Hobby Lobby.

Portlandia joke :)

I also found these little jars that fit perfectly in my cubbies shelf I built a few months ago, and filled in the first one with dried bluebonnets from our Ennis trip.

Saturday, June 7: HOT! It was 97 on Friday, and 94 on Saturday. Summer is here, folks…I gotta get out. I took Tyler and Jamie around town, hitting up all the kid activities: the Home Depot Workshop,

and the library’s kickoff party to start the summer reading club.

I picked up 17 books from the library sale; I actually have time for recreational reading! McKay and I watched Philomena after the babies went to sleep, and we really liked it!

Funny Things:

• This sign on someone’s car in the Lowes’s parking lot one night.
  
  
  
  
  This gives me hope for the world :)
• Tyler was having an interesting time sorting out all the names for bee-like creatures. "Bumble Bee. Honey Bee. Wasp. Yellow Jack-O-Lantern."
• Tyler and Jamie help me water the flowers every morning (or evening if that's when I remember that the plants are dying). They cheerfully fight over who gets which watering can, and when everyone is armed with one (except me; I use this huge mixing bowl because I can dump like a gallon on each plant in under 2 minutes while the kids use their dainty little toy/decorative watering cans that trickle maddeningly slow), we water away.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Jamie and Tyler still like to play I Spy in the car, but Jamie has found a rather cunning and malicious use for the game. She and Tyler had been fighting over a toy in the backseat, and after I intervened, she ended up with the toy. After a minute, I heard from the back, "Tyler, let's play I Spy. Okay, my turn! I spy with my one little eye. Something that I have in my hands. And you want it. What is it, Tyler? What is it?"
• Lastly: we've been dying over this all week: