Another Wreath

I made our new spring/summer wreath this morning and this is what I came up with. I'm pretty happy with it, but also feel like I need to make some changes at the same time....I hate that! Anyway, Johnny says he likes it, so for now, it's staying the way it is; and I do think it looks good on our door.

Home Improvement

The title takes me back to one of the Jones family TV show favorites.....we would watch Home Improvement every week as a family after dinner. It's really pretty funny and Johnny and I occasionally catch an episode even now. While we luckily had no experiences like Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor used to have, we did complete some projects at my mom's this past weekend. And like all home projects, it was slow starting.....which means that on the 2nd day, I went shopping with my sister-in-law Amiee for a couple hours just to get away from the things I don't handle very well. I really believe that my husband and Brad were very happy with our decision to leave. Here's what we did:

Wood Floors

 Living Room & Hallway Before

My mom's dog Sassy wasn't a fan of the hammer

Before (Living Room) 

Sassy thought that Johnny's lap looked like a good place to sit while he was working

Not only sit, but sleep too! 

Living room almost done

Hallway almost done

Getting close....

Finished!!

Mailbox

For Christmas this past year, Johnny and I got my mom a heavy duty mailbox because her old one, well, was pitiful!! Upon our return to my mom's this past weekend, we noticed that she was still using the old one, so Amiee and I decided that we should put the new one up. 

The old mailbox and rotted board it sat on

The replacement board......we headed to Home Depot (only because we had to return a tool rental) to get a new board. The man who was helping us cut it to size and then wrote "Free" on it.....that's right, it was absolutely free!! We were extremely happy. Then he told us that it needed to be treated/painted somehow so that it didn't rot, and of course pink spray paint was the clear choice. (Mom is really happy with our choice too.) 

Since Amiee is an Agriculture Education major, she has been through training to handle table saws, drills, etc., so she was the one to put it all together. She drilled the pink board into the post and is drilling the mailbox into the board here. (The windblown hair was a nice touch I thought.) 

And it is standing! (Notice the pink reflection from underneath the mailbox...) :-D 

The numbers complete the box.....we were really pleased with our "handiness"! No more wet mail for mom, or not getting her mail at all because the box is buried in the snow! 

I think mom is happy with her new floors and mailbox. It is nice to be able to do things for our family like this, but since I don't have a lot of patience when it comes to home projects and dealing with things that go wrong, I asked my mom to at least wait another year before she found something else for us to do.....I just don't think my OCD-ness can handle it! :-) Needless to say, Johnny loves it so I think he is going to trump me on this one if she finds anything else for him to do. (I think the real reason he likes it is because he gets to buy new tools most of the time.) 

I'm on spring break this week and my goals of no makeup, not fixing my hair and only wearing sweatpants have been accomplished. I've been able to lounge around and gather some things from a trip to Michael's for spring/summer decorating. Will definitely post pictures of what I come up with.  

Well, I'm off to take a nap......pretty much because I can...haha! 

Spring Preparation

We took advantage of the nice weather this weekend and did a little spring preparation for the house. We didn't really get to do any of this last year due to our hectic schedules so it was nice that we were able to this year. The pictures are of a few of the things we completed on Saturday and Sunday.

Washing down the siding

Bo enjoying the weather

Bo is not a fan of the water hose....can you tell?

Bo hiding behind my chair as Johnny finishes the siding

Cleaning off the grill

Spreading lime

So, I said that "WE" took advantage of the nice weather, but as you can tell, Johnny did most of the work while I completed our usual indoor tasks like laundry, cooking and cleaning. (Johnny also cleaned and washed out the garage, cleaned both vehicles, trimmed our rose bushes and washed our screens.) Isn't my husband the best?! 

Portland, Oregon

I really cannot believe that I have let this slip for so long. It has been almost a month since my last post and I really have no explanation as to why, other than, I guess I'm taking FULL advantage of relaxing. :-) Which is a welcomed change according to my husband.

Since my last post, we have had a few date nights, made a trip to KC, and have been working like crazy. This past week we visited Portland, Oregon. Johnny was invited through Cargill to attend the GEAPS (pronounced Jeeps) conference which is a professional organization he belongs to. And, wives were invited to come along as well!! It was such a nice trip. While Johnny was in meetings, I attended some of the guest tours that were available to see the sites of Portland. I was able to spend some quality time with some of his co-workers wives, which was really great too! I didn't really take as many pictures as I would have liked, but at least I did take some.

Our first stop was Pittock Mansion. This was a mansion built by Henry and Georgiana Pittock in 1909. They lived in it with their children and it was occupied until 1958. It really is a beautiful mansion. This is the back of the house that overlooks the city.

Front View

This is the garage

Overlooking Portland; it is kinda hard to see, but there are mountains off in the distance.

Telephone

This was the master bath shower. Harry was quite the innovator and inventor. There are tiny holes in each of the pipes that surround you along with switches on the wall for you to decide how much or how little water you would like.

This is the dumbwaiter. It was used by the servants if they didn't want to carry things from one floor to the next.

The staircase is made up entirely of marble (except for the railing).

You can click on this picture to enlarge and read more about the mansion, if you want :-)

While driving through downtown Portland, we drove by Voodoo Donut. If you haven't heard of VooDoo Donut, you should definitely google it. It is a really neat little donut shop that makes crazy donuts. Some have cereal on them, some have cookies on them, they even made one that tasted like pepto bismol. I had just a normal chocolate iced donut and it was really good. It still didn't beat a Lamar's donut, but it was good. The picture below is of the line standing outside of the shop to purchase their goodies, they say it is usually about twice as long. (The donut shop is where the yellow sign is.)

One of Portland's Motto's. And trust us, Portland is a little weird. But, the people are SUPER friendly!!!

Another site that we wives saw was the Chinese Garden. It was so peaceful and had it not been raining, would have been absolutely beautiful. I would have really liked to see this in the spring. (Even so, look how green everything is, in February! I wish it were like that her in IN.)

Our second day included winery tours and shopping. The first winery we went to was Duck Pond. Duck Pond was founded in 1993 and offers a wide variety of wines.

Wine barrells that are aging. I couldn't even count how many there might be.....it was nuts!

These are cases of wine. Millions of $$ for sure!

The second winery we went to was Erath Winery. The scenery here was just beautiful. You can see the rows of vines in the back, which are hand-picked.

It was really a great trip, even with the rain and clouds every day we were there. We both love to travel and it was so nice to get away for a few days. It was really nice for me to get to meet even more of Johnny's co-workers but to also see more of the business that he runs. There is a whole lot more that goes into the grain elevator than just the farmer bringing the grain and then the elevator shipping it out. There are so many details that I didn't even know existed; It's amazing!

Today I started a long term sub position in a different building. It is still a high school, but different building. I'm excited but nervous at the same time. Today was like the first day of school all over again. I really miss the kids and teachers that I worked with previously, but there's nothing wrong with change either. I hope this position goes as well as my last! (Even though I have no doubt that it will.)

In the next few days/weeks we really do not have a whole lot planned. We will be taking a trip back to KC during my spring break, but other than that we are just enjoying sitting at home and not making 6 1/2 hour drives between IN and MO. :-)

Happy Monday!