Completed Projects

Eric and I have FINALLY completed the chest and dresser we have had 1/2 finished in the garage for about 2 months. 

They look great (if I do say so myself)! 

We decided not to make the milk paint for the chest for a couple of reasons. One: I was scared to do it and have it look bad then have to start over AND two: we had extra paint form the "shell" of the dresser and we loved the color so we went with that. 

Here is the chest during and after: 

After the final coat of paint stripper and sanding. 

We will take some photos of it inside the house as soon as we figure out where it is going. The garage is a tad dark so it doesn't do it justice. 

Here is the dresser that my mom gave us and we are putting in our oldest sons room: 

Again, we will take pictures of this all put together and inside the bedroom. 

We're pretty proud of ourselves right now and both Eric and I feel like we were quite productive today! 

More photos to come :-) 

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the moms out there- Happy Mothers Day! 

I hope your day is as fantastic as you are. 

We have had a lovely day so far. 

Eric made steak, lobster tails, artichokes from our garden and corn on the cob for lunch. We had my mom and my grandma over and it was such a nice time. 

I can't say this enough but our children LOVE their Grammy and Great Grammy. 

The kids show off for them and demand so much attention but both my mom and grandma are so good with the kids and are so good to the kids. 

Anyway, we played on the swing set, showed off our garden, ate, visited and enjoyed one another's company. 

The kids drew me the most beautiful pictures and bought me 2 gorgeous Princess Lily plants. 

A wonderful 1st Mother's Day for me! 

I just have to say to my Mom: you are very special and I love you very much. Thank you for being such a wonderful mother and so much more, especially as I grow older and now that I have children of my own. You are very much appreciated and we all love you so much! 

Lobster Tails

Wine! 

I also want to say Happy Mother's Day to my mother in law, Joyce. 

I hope your day was spectacular! 

We can't wait to see you in just a few weeks and we are especially anxious for you to meet your grandchildren. Happy Mother's Day! 

A blog about snakes

I'm fearful that my blog will turn into a blog about snakes if we continue the way we've been going... 

A rattle snake tried to come in our front door 2 days ago. Eric was unloading my car and was walking through the front door when he looked down and on our threshold was a (insert bad word) rattle snake! 

He was stepping over the threshold at the time so he continued in and told me that there is a rattle snake on our front stoop (I didn't know it was actually on our threshold).  

I about had a stroke.  This freaked me out for so many reasons.  I had, not 5 minutes before, told our oldest son to put his shoes on and go outside to play. I said to grab his shoes from the basket by the front door and go outside. 

Plus, I had just brought the kids inside through that door maybe 2 hours prior.  My daughter was sleeping so I carried her in and so was my baby.  

Then I took my shoes off (not that they made much of a difference, I was wearing flip-flops) and walked to the car 3 times barefoot to unload it. 

Anyway, Eric went out the back door to grab our snake killing shovels and was headed to the front stoop. I was looking through the glass to see what was happening because when he originally told me about the snake, I didn't hear much except snake and front stoop. So, I opened the front door being the genius I am and he all of the sudden said to shut the front door with enough urgency to make me do it without question. 

Evidently, the snake was starting to turn the corner around the door to enter our house, it was that close.  

So, Eric did his thing and chopped its head off and disposed of it but not before I snapped a couple of photos.  

This rattle snake had 2 buttons. 

Needless to say, we spent all the next day inside (it was raining so it actually worked out) and now today we are all back outside again. Eric and I spent all morning mowing, weed eating and making sure everything is picked up all around the yard that is in close proximity to the house. We also had another snake talk/lesson with the kids to make sure they are truly aware of the danger. 

I know I'll regret saying this but I cannot wait for the really hot weather because we rarely see them during those times. They are generally too busy looking for cool spots and water to be near our house. That's our past experience anyway. 

Bittersweet

Today is both a sad day and an exciting day for me. 

Today I leave my (almost) 11 year career at Allstate to begin a new, exciting, rewarding and difficult lifetime career of being a Mother. 

As excited as I am and as much as Eric and I have planned for this and hoped that we could make this happen and work out for us and our family, I am also very sad to leave my current job. 

My Bosses are both incredible men and most of my co-workers are wonderful women who I genuinely enjoy spending time with. 

Time to move on to a new phase of my life, clean out my closet and move my work clothes to make room for my MOM JEANS!  :-) 

Here is what is left of my 11 years with Allstate: 

My belongings

My empty desk 

The wall where my insurance license and photo of Eric and me used to be. 

Cheers to a whole new beginning!  

Snakes, snakes and MORE SNAKES!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this in the past but I do not like snakes. Eric doesn't like them either.

Each year, we typically get 1 rattle snake that we have to kill and dispose of. 

So far this year we have killed 3 rattle snakes! 

It is still early in the season so I am very nervous for the rest of spring and summer. To have that many this early in the season cannot be a good thing. 

The first snake was on our back lawn and the kids found it. Luckily, they were more scared than curious so they came running to Eric and he chopped its head off. It was a baby with maybe 1 button. 

After that incident, Eric and I had a very serious talk with the kids about snakes, specifically rattle snakes and how dangerous they are. We basically told them to run fast and come get us immediately if they see a snake, regardless of what it looks like. 

The second one was in the front yard on our driveway and they immediately came to get Eric. He chopped its head off as well.  #2 was also a baby with 1 button. 

The third one was just outside of our front gate and had the misfortune of trying to cross the road as I was driving up in the truck. It's buttons were up so I knew right away that it was a rattler and this one was older. He or she had several buttons. I ran it over with the truck. 

When the tall grass was mowed over the weekend, we drove by and the Turkey Vultures were snacking on the remains! 

It grossed me out a little but also made me happy because when I ran it over, it was headed in the direction of our house. 

Hopefully we don't see any more rattle snakes this year as we have already surpassed our quota for the year. 

Time to vaccinate the dogs for the year!

Our oldest Son lifted up the empty duck pool yesterday only to discover yet another snake underneath of it.  Eric had just talked with him yesterday morning about lifting things this time of year.  He basically said don't lift up anything larger than a small rock and watch where you are playing and running, etc.
So, being the 5 year old boy that he is, the pool was lifted and there was a snake under it.  LUCKILY, this was a garter snake so basically harmless.

My Brother and Sister-in-Law's 2 dogs are staying with us right now and Bugsy (the Boston Terrier) was with the kids when this happened as she will not leave our Daughter's side and they absolutely freaked out that Bugsy was going to get bit by a rattle snake.
Eric said they came running to the front door crying hysterically that Bugsy was going to get bit by a rattle snake.  Eric had them go wait in the back yard with Bugsy (once she would finally leave the snake) and he went to lift the pool up.  He said the garter snake was about 3 feet long all coiled up under the pool.  Once he lifted it, the snake uncoiled and started slithering up to our house. 
Now, we only kill rattle snakes at our house so this snake was not in any danger of us chopping it's head off but I do not want them in or near our house.  That creeps me out big time.  The snake ended up being shooed down to the front pasture and hopefully headed to the neighbors house. 

Unfortunately I have no photos of any of the snakes as the majority of this happened while I was at work. 

I hope I do not have dreams about snakes tonight!  UGH. 

Cobra and Luna

On Easter Sunday, Cobra and Luna left our ranch to go live with their original owner, my Dad. 

We will miss them so much but this is a good thing for us as we had 7 horses including them and we were not giving them enough activity. 

We will always remember the day Luna was born just a little over 2 years ago on Easter. It was so incredible and we will forever love her. 

Cobra was an incredible mom from the start. 

I hope they get a ton of attention and training at their new home! 

Our New Project

I bought this lovely chest at a storage sale. There is a business in downtown Placerville that uses a warehouse for her excess furniture before she repurposes each piece. 

I fell in love with this chest and got it for a bargain. 

We decided to strip the existing paint then sand, prime and reprint it with homemade milk paint. 

Here is where we are so far... 

The above photos show what it looks like when I bought it.

The above photos here show it after the first coat of stripper was applied and paint was scraped off. 

And here it is with the second coat of stripper on all but the front. We haven't had a lot of time to concentrate on this but we need to finish it very soon to get it inside in one of the bedrooms. 

I'll post pics of the next steps very soon (hopefully).