Looky! A Before and After

I'm at it again.  Just can't leave well enough alone.  This time the fireplace was my victim.  If my house were not swimming in oak and the fireplace were the only piece of oak in the house, I would have left it.  It was pretty enough.  But it got lost in all the oakness.  It was crying for help.  It just wanted to be noticed, to stand out.  I hope I made it happy.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I used a miter box and a caulking gun for the first time.  I primed and painted and nailed and glued.  AND I did it without any help from the husband.  Power to the Girl!

Double Take

In case you don't know Isabelle very well, let me tell you, she's a crack up!  The moment she saw this costume online she knew this is what she wanted to be for Halloween.  We had our Trunk or Treat last night.  It was so funny to watch people look at her and then look at her again and then bust out laughing.

 She had alot of fun and was very original that's for sure!  It's a good thing babies heads aren't really that big!   Funny, funny girl.

Cook Halloween dance: year two

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Bird Watching

Since moving to this house we have noticed a large group of birds around our neighborhood.  They always fly in circling circles.  Sometimes very high in the air, and sometimes quite low.  It's always neat to see them flying around. 

 Isabelle and I have taken to watching them in the late afternoon and early evening as they fly around and settle into the neighbor's tree for the night.

   We got the binoculars out one day to get a closer look. (camera doesn't show close up image)

     And this is what we saw:

Or maybe that's what I imagined I saw. Ha.

10 or 110?

One minute she's a 10 year old princess

And the next she's a 110 year old woman!

They grow up so fast.

She's been waiting for this day

Today is the day this girl:

Has been waiting to go here:

So she can ride this:

and this:

and of course this:

She has been marking one day off at a time on her calendar for over a year.  Listening to the soundracks of the rides for months.  Waiting with much anticipation for this day, when her Grandma takes her to Disneyland for her 10th birthday.  She is the last grandchild to participate in this awesome tradition.  She was only days old when Grandma took Amanda, the first grandchild to start the whole Disneyland 10th birthday trip.  And I think she is the most excited!  Her first plane trip also.  Big Big Day for Isabelle!

her broken finger

See how the tip of the bone is sitting on top of the other bone?  Yeah, it's not supposed to be like that.  Emily broke her finger while playing kickball in weight training.  She jammed it while catching the ball.  It's totally fractured from the bone under it.

Luckily, there's no need for surgery.  As long as she wears her splint religiously for 4-6 weeks, the bones should grow back together.  This is the second finger she's broken in her young life.  The first was while giving Logan Indian Torture while trying to get him off of her or something stupid like that.

She has realllllly long fingers, so I'm sure it won't be the last broken finger we'll see on this girl.

Is it Fall yet?

This is my first attempt at linking up.  The Nester is having a Fall Mantle party.  So here is my fall mantle.

Very Simple.  Some acorns, little seeded ball things, candle sticks, pumpkins.  That's about it.  My fireplace hasn't gone through the transformation process yet, but very soon!

There's also a little more of Fall going on here:

Lots of texture with leaves, feathers, fruit, berries.

I love Fall!  Now if the weather would just catch on.

SWEET SIXTEEN

Today, sixteen years ago my little baby that almost came in the backseat of the car was born.  She was dark haired, dark eyed, dark complected and looked nothing like me. My little china doll.  And I loved her to pieces.  Still do.  And much to her credit, so do alot of others.

She was heart attacked last night by her friends.  So cute.  Her smile was a mile wide.  Wider than it usually is, if you can believe that!

Love that girl!

Help a Sista Out!

I'm giving a talk in church on Sunday on Blessings of the Temple.  I know how the Temple has blessed me and what blessings I've recieved by going to the Temple.  But what about you?  I promise not to use any names.  Could you share with me how the Temple has blessed your life?    It would just give my talk another dimension if I had other's experiences to share.  Pretty please??

Thank you.

Life is like a box a chocolates.....

You never know what you're gonna get.   In our case it's 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric.  We move into a new Ward and BAM!  Get to work Brother Cook!  I hope to see him now and then in between this and that.

The Man sure does look fine in a suit though!

The dangers of Softball

The picture is kind of blurry.  maybe you can't see it that well, but Emily has a FAT LIP.  She recieved this little beauty at church softball.  And it wasn't even during the game.  A girl threw it to her in the parking lot and it bounced off her glove.  She made an amazing catch during the game though.

  She fared better than a guy in our ward who took a hit to the face and fractured his cheekbone and had to have surgery.
 That's not even the danger I'm talking about here:  It's Boys.  Lots and lots of boys on the team and the other teams.  But what are you gonna do?   Can't really keep her locked up in a closet.  Or can I?

How I know he loves me

Aside from the fact that he tells me he loves me, works hard to provide for me, hugs and kisses on me and tells me that I'm pretty:  there's something else:

He can't watch movies where the wife dies.  It's too much for him.

That's how I know.

Yummy tomato soup

I may or may not have posted about this soup before, who knows.  But I made it the other night and still can't believe how scrumptious and simple it is.  Paired with grilled cheese sandwiches.  Delightful.  All you do is take your favorite marinara sauce.  The one I used was tomato and basil. Basil makes it more sweet than tangy which is what I like.  Pour it into a sauce pan and then add half and half to the consistency you like.  I added some italian seasoning to it.  That's it.  Dip your grilled cheeser into it.

Your Welcome.

Do you hear that?

It's silence.  Oh sweet silence.  The house is quiet.  There's no noisy Disney channel blaring.  No ipod sounding from a bedroom somewhere.  No golf tournament playing.  No house full of friends.  All those things are good and fine and well, but for pete's sake I need me some silence!!  At least for a little while.
  Then I'll be itching to hear how the first day of school went, and get some noise back in this house.

Does this mean I've crossed over?

So in Sacrament meeting today, there were three teenagers sitting directly two rows behind us.  There didn't seem to be any parents with these said teenagers.  These teenagers didn't seem to be related.  But this is what I heard as the Sacrament was being passed: "Shut uuuupp!"  "Nothing would make me happier than to kick you in the face!"  "Shut uuuuuppp!"  And on and on and freaking on!  They proceeded to talk during the entire meeting.  Not whispering, folks.  Talking.  I turned around to give them "the look" a few times.  They didn't react in the slightest.  My blood was BOILING!  not a good feeling to have during church.  The entire meeting was lost for me.  I couldn't wait to catch them in the hall and give them a piece of my mind. And so I did. That's so not like me.  I don't know what came over me.  The poor girl looked horrified.  One of the boys who was talking the most said he wasn't being loud, and I wanted to pull his ear.   Phillip said I'm officially old now, and then I told him what the kid said and he suddenly became old too.  No, we're not young anymore.  And Thank Goodness!

What I did with $15

Did I mention that when my Fab Sister was here she demanded  suggested we find a desk before she left so I could start work on my future office?  We found this one on craigslist, but only after driving to kingdom come and back again.  Why is it that when you're not looking for something, it's everywhere.  But when you're looking for it, you can't find it.  Anyway.  The man had it listed for $25.  After taking a look at it and surveying the work, she talked him down to $15.  Plus he just wanted it out of his garage.  Score.  It fit just perfect in her Suburban. Sweet.  So I worked on it today.  Got all the drawers to open and close.  Real wood, no laminate here.

  And ladies and gentlemen........here is the before:

And of course, the after:

I decided to stain the top and keep it dark, a much better work surface.  I kind of like the look.  What do you think?

Transformations

Don't you just love before and afters?  I do.  My fabulous Sister Beverly came to town this week on a mission.  To transform my house!  She studied it and knew just what had to be done.  Starting with my furniture.  I've known for a long time I wanted to paint this armoir a robins egg blue.  There's no talking about things with her, there's only doing.  Why didn't I get that trait?

Before

After.  Isn't it lovely?

So we thought as long as we're transforming one piece, we might as well do a couple more at the same time.  We turned a boring, blah oak sofa table into this little beauty!

and a little ugly brown butlers table turned classic black, but I didn't take a picture.  She also rearranged my Living room into this.  And reaccessorized all the built in book shelves, living room and family room.  Some of the things we found at Ikea.  If you haven't been to Ikea yet, stop what you're doing right now and run there as fast as you can!

She has convinced me that I need an office and I need to paint my oak kitchen cabinets white. Whew!  I'm tired just thinking about it all, but I know she's right.  Aren't big sisters always right?

Thanks Bev! 

A painter I'm not

I painted over one wall in my hall bath today.  It was a green and purple sponge painted wall and I just couldn't take it anymore.  So I scrounged together some leftover paint I already had and went to work.  I. hate. to. paint.  Taping, dripping, messy.  I get it in my hair and all over my hands and arms and floor. Every single time.  There are ALOT of walls in this house that I want painted.  The white walls are so white.  I haven't hung things on them because I know I want them painted, but I don't want to do it.  So they just stare at me, taunting me.  Phillip thinks they're just fine.   I guess I'd better get used to paint in my hair.

Man Woman Cake

We've watched a few episodes of Man Woman Wild on the Discovery channel.  A husband and wife surviving in survival situations (with a camera crew of course).  They get along pretty well under stress, much better than we would.  Yesterday Amanda and Scott came over to bake a cake from scratch.  It was interesting to watch them working together in a baking situation.   They worked pretty well together.  I enjoyed just being the advisor and camera crew.

The cake was pretty good too.