Lifted

I got a copy of this in the mail today:

It's a fun and fabulous little book about scraplifting. Scraplifting? Yeah, you know, seeing a rockin' scrapbook layout and tweaking it a little to make it your own. The book is amazing and packed with inspiration!

Why am I blogging about this, you ask?

Well, my uber-creative middle sister is one of the featured artists.

And my children are in some of the layouts.

And I can't resist an opportunity to give a shout-out to one of my incredible siblings/offspring.

And Lifted would make a terrific Christmas present (or fun gift for yourself).

And 100% of November's proceeds will be donated to a sweet young Arizona mom whose husband died of cancer last week. (Click here for her story.)

So, if I have convinced you that Lifted is necessary for your existence, or if you'd just like to help, pull out your credit card and visit www.papertherapy.com.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

Be still, my beating heart

Today I had the privilege of hearing
this,
and for that moment,
my world could not
have been more perfect.

{I'm really excited for May 25.}

Dryer Drama: The Deconstruction Phase

As promised, I give you the photo essay of our Tuesday adventures:

Before the demolition: The white vinyl pipe running through the shelf is meant for bathroom exhaust, not highly flammable hot lint. The silver pipe sticking out of the dryer is basically the cheapest material known to man. The motto for the day: out with the old, in with the new.

After some investigation, the guys that came out made a plan: cut an 18-inch-wide hole the entire length of the room (left to right in the picture above - about 30 feet), tear out all the old and obstructed venting pipe, and replace it with new hard pipe. Since their company would not patch/replace the drywall and Garry planned to do that work himself, Garry advocated a different plan.

Garry was convinced that the pipe could run through this wall and into the garage, then outside from there. It took some exploration and a pilot hole to check Garry's theory, but Garry ended up being right! In the end, Garry only ended up having to patch these little holes in the ceiling of the laundry closet.

See that little dot in the center of that disgustingly dirty garage step? That's the pilot hole drilled from the laundry closet in our basement. The dryer guys finally agreed with Garry that this was the best route for the venting pipe.

All along, the dryer guys kept referring to Garry as a partner in their "brain trust." It was true -- Garry seemed to provide the brains for the entire operation! Granted, he had a vested interest in the outcome, but it was pretty funny to hear the guys' comments about Garry's good ideas. Who was the expert on this job???

Since the new plan involved re-routing the venting pipe, a new hole had to be drilled through the wall of the garage.

This is where the pipe came out of the house and into the garage. Garry will have to rebuild our step, but it was so ghetto before that a new step will be a huge improvement! It's a teeny tiny project compared to patching and retexturing 30 feet of ceiling.

And here's the finished vent, running along the ceiling in the garage. From today's laundry run, it's clear that we have great air flow and the performance of the dryer has vastly improved!

Eight hundred bucks or not, I'm so glad this project is (almost) done!

Eight ways I would rather spend $800

Monday started off with a bang at our house.

A guy came over at 8:00 to perform what we thought would be a simple cleaning of our dryer vent pipe. We have suspected a clog for a while (the dryer takes three hours to finish a load and the clothes come out smelling musty), and since Garry's efforts to clean it out himself were fruitless, we called in a professional. What we learned, however, is that the piping in the ceiling is either horribly clogged or ripped, leaving us with zero air flow between the dryer and the outside. In addition, whoever finished the basement of this house installed the cheapest piping possible, put the dryer twice as far from the outside vent as he ought to have done, and installed piping behind the dryer that is not up to code. Combined, these offenses have created a huge fire hazard that needs to be fixed ASAP.

This is way beyond the scope of Garry's handyman capabilities.

And it's going to cost at least $800.

We had earmarked a wad of cash for a really exciting Christmas present for Garry (freeing up our tax return for something I really want), but apparently having "fun money" saved is just like begging for a home improvement disaster. I'm glad this ridiculous situation won't devastate us financially, but it is a huge bummer nonetheless.

Given the opportunity, here are eight ways -- most of them frivolous and in no particular order -- that I would rather spend $800:

1. A super-capacity dryer.

















2. A professional painter to transform the vaulted walls upstairs.


















3. Food storage.
















4. A new maternity wardrobe.




















5. Two round-trip tickets to Honolulu (Expedia has them for that price at the moment!).
















6. A home decor fabric shopping spree at JoAnn this weekend (50% off...think of all the possibilities!).


















7. Several sessions with a personal trainer.














8. This cute chair -- in purple.















Instead, you can expect online updates regarding the expensive, smelly experts making holes in our ceiling, shoving fancy, code-appropriate pipes in the right places, and, hopefully, a dryer that finishes a load in less than an hour.

I bet you can't wait.

Moments of clarity

After skipping church last week, I was glad to go today (Garry, the preferred parent, stayed home with an ailing Gavin). I needed the spiritual renewal and in spite of the rowdy boys on my row, it came. I'm so grateful for the quiet moments when my soul can commune with a higher power and get answers and guidance and comfort and peace.

Then I came home and received another lift from my sweet sister, Angie, the awesome girl who inspires me on a regular basis. She has a way of being so open and honest about her feelings. She knows herself in a way I can only dream of, and I'm so grateful she shares some of that knowledge with her vast community of blog readers. My day is always happier when I find a new post on angieinpink.blogspot.com, as I did today.

And I want to share this, her latest post, with you. May it lift you as much as it did me!

Happy Sunday.

Halloween Fever

Halloween has come and gone.

I was not an enthusiastic participant this year. Maybe next year I'll have a little more spark for all things festive.

We managed to carve pumpkins the night before, as seen here:


I found these Mr. Potato Head-esque facial features at Wal-Mart that I begged the boys to use, but only Gavin agreed with me. Isn't this an attractive pumpkin?


All things considered, the boys loved their costumes -- or at least the freedom to choose them. Garry took the big boys trick-or-treating around our neighborhood and they had a blast. I stayed home with Gavin, who had a fever and was completely miserable. In the photo above he was under the influence of Motrin and pretty happy. After 48 hours of fever and various other distressing symptoms I took him to Urgent Care today. He has a virus, so I guess he and I will suffer together for a while.

Happy Halloween!

Success

The Ninth Ward Halloween Carnival was a smashing success on Tuesday. My committee delivered on all their assignments, various ward members pitched in with supplies and man-power, we had enough food and carnival prizes (with a little to spare), and everyone appeared to have a great time! I think there were about 200 people at the party for dinner, games, and trick-or-treating. I was completely exhausted at the end of the evening, but was especially grateful to have felt reasonably well all day. That was truly a miracle!

I'm including this photo of the gym, pre-party, for my mom, who brainstormed and shopped with me the week before the carnival. (Thanks for agreeing with me on the tablecloths.)

This photo is for me, to remind me of the seemingly endless crush of people lined up for hot dogs and chili.

This one's for Elder Ryan Dixon (Croatian missionary). I thought he'd get a kick out of these missionaries' "costumes." The Elders were the judges for our chili cook-off.

Garry brought the boys in their costumed glory: a turtle, a ninja, and a transformer.

Tyler's favorite carnival game was "dangling donuts." He got smeared with chocolate but had tons of fun!

This is a completely UNflattering photo of me (I promise I'm not showing yet...or least not as much as those overalls suggest), but it's such a fun snapshot of Colleen and Kendra (just two of my buddies here) that I had to include it!

Now I need to start planning the ward Christmas party...if any of you, fair readers, have a suggestion, please let me know! I need ideas for the menu and a kid-friendly program for starters!

11 months and counting

Gavin is eleven months old today. It's amazing how the time flies!!

Here's what happened in Gavin's world during the month of October:

• More frequent and enthusiastic waving and clapping
• "The one-armed salute" -- an arm pointing outward, cheek on shoulder, balled fist
• Throwing things down the stairs, in the garbage can, and in the toilet
• Transition to 100% full-time walking
• Arching back and screaming during dressing and diaper changing
• Biting (playfully?)
• Squealing in a very shrill, high-pitched way -- but always to express happiness
  
• Preferring Dad to Mom almost all the time
  
• Getting a foot stuck in the crib rails during nearly every overnight sleep
• Weathering a very icky cold and cough
• Insatiable curiosity for cupboards, drawers, tubs, shower stalls, boxes, garbage cans, etc.

These monthly photos are getting pretty tricky! Gavin sure doesn't like sitting still for very long!

The post before the one I need to do

I have a post in the works about the great event that was the Ninth Ward Halloween Carnival.

And one about Gavin turning 11 months tomorrow.

And one about Halloween (which I know is still two days away).

But this one is for the great group of friends who showed up at playgroup today.

I haven't been to playgroup for a few weeks. Who can deal with friends and sunshine when there's puking and sleeping to be done? Anyway, I have missed it, as has the ever-socially-deprived four-year-old in my life. So today we went, even though I didn't shower and Gavin didn't get a nap and I didn't take enough snack food.

It was unbelievably refreshing to sit on a blanket in the scratchy dead grass with six of the women I'm coming to know and love. It was so fun to watch our millions of children running pell-mell about the playground, and to see our babies eat sand and pillage food from each other's diaper bags. Tyler was a stinker the whole time (watching TV and playing computer games by himself has diminished his social skills, apparently), but I still enjoyed myself.

My favorite moment was when Gavin barfed a mouthful of cheese and grass all over my arm. As my stomach rolled and I struggled not to lose my own cheese, six arms reached out with baby wipes to clean up the mess. I just closed my eyes and let them take care of it. Soon enough, the moment had passed and all was well with the world, and I couldn't help but smile.

Thanks, ladies, for making my day.

And now for a group nap.

Honey do[ne]

Like most husbands, Garry has an omni-present, ever-evolving honey-do list. We joke that I'm his shift manager on the weekends (it's probably more true than not, but I try to give him a break once in a while). This week he deserves a shout-out for the big dent he made in his list.

• Fix the desk hutch Zach broke by climbing on it {check}
• Winterize the sprinklers {check}
• Mow the lawn {check}
• Suck up all the leaves in our yard and the neighbor's {check}
• Bring in the dining set we can't seem to sell {check}
• Organize the garage so it can fit both cars {check}
• Make progress on the flagstone patio {check}
• Woo out-of-town higher-ups at work {check}
• Take three kids to church alone so I can barf in peace {check}

Here's some proof of Garry's awesome work:

Yes, that would be five giant bags of leaves and grass from our yard.

A two-car garage!!!! We haven't had one for years. Just in time for the snow.

And the "someday" patio. This will be its status for the winter.


Love ya honey. Thanks for your hard work!