New Desk!!!

We found a new desk for the kids to do thier homework at, since the table in the kitchen is in front of the TV...LOL The desk is solid wood and loved it, just not the color (of course), so we loaded it up in the trailer and brought it home. We didn't have a chair for it, so we went to Lowe's and bought some cheap 1x2's and 1x3's and Richie and Seth built a chair from www.ana-white.com. I love stripping the furniture because I get to see how many different styles there are underneath. This one had the black and white and there was orange under that. Not as many colors as the dresser had. When we realized there was orange under everything, Seth and I decided we really liked the color.

We put 2 coats of paint on it, then sanded down some of the edges and put a glaze over it to highlight the sanded parts. Then on top of that there is a protective clear coat (it smelled, looked and spread like glue and dried clear) we added since the kids will be coloring on the desk and I am sure there will be marks on it at some point. The chair just has a polystain on it from Lowe's (the same stain I used on the dresser). We put it in the play room and one of these days (probably not for at least another 6 months) I want to reorganize the play room when Richie gets back from his deployment.

I really love the way it turned out and the kids are excited to use it!!

New Dresser...

So, I decided that Seth needed a new dresser. With his growing and all, his clothes were not fitting the dresser any more with the drawers being too small...LOL It was time for an "upgrade". I had been searching the thrift stores, consignment stores, and antique stores looking for something to redo. I finally found something!! It was all white and had silver handles on the drawers. We loaded it up in the trailer and headed home where we have disected it and figured out what we were going to do with it. I had in mind the color I wanted to do, so that part was easy. The hard part was stripping the sucker. There were six coats of "stuff" on it. White, chocolate brown, green, primer, poly, and then a stain of some sort. Crazy...

I got through most of the paints with the stripper (3 trys) and then had to sand it down.

After it was all sanded, the fun began. I painted 2 coats of paint and then sanded some of the edges to give it a "used" look and then put a stain over it. I think it turned out really well and Seth really likes it too. I put some feet on it as well to raise it up just a little and spray painted the knobs. I liked the style, just not the color.

My next project is a desk for the kids and Richie built a chair for the desk for a plan from ana-white.com. LOVE IT!!! I will post about that once it is complete!!

Monster Jam 2011...

The whole reason for coming home in February. MONSTER JAM!!! The whole family went this year except Dad and Benny. We started out with our traditional dinner with the Ott's before the event. and then headed over to the Dome. It was great to see everyone and we have already ordered our tickets for next year...LOL Gravedigger gave us a scare, because he couldn't even do the races because of a transmission problem.

Grace had some Grave Digger fever going on. Her fingernails were painted black and green and her toenails were supporting Max D.

The boys were supporting Mohawk Warrior with their ear phones.

Lots of excitement going on during the freestyle event.

I will say that Grave Digger pulled it off in the freestyle event to win the competition! It was amazing. We can't wait for next year!!

Amtrak...

This February we went home for Monster Jam and instead of the usual mode of travel (car or plane) we decided to take the train. Yep, the train. I got online at amtrak.com and looked up prices and destinations and found it would cost less to take the train from New Orleans to Carbondale, IL with a family bedroom on the train than it would be to fly all four of us to St. Louis. We drove to New Orleans, LA on Tuesday night after school and stopped in Ocean Springs, MS and stayed the night. (We could have gone all the way through, but we weren't in a hurry, since the train didn't leave until 1:30pm the next day) We woke up Weds. morning and drove by our old house that was hit by hurricane Katrina and then drove onto New Orleans, LA. We parked the car, checked in, got lunch at the station and hung out.

Then it was time to board the train. The kids were so excited. When I first mentioned to them about taking the train, they looked at me like I was crazy. I could see in their eyes "people actually do that". Yep, they do and we did!!!

We left New Orleans, LA at 1:30pm Weds afternoon so we hung out in the room and got it ready for bedtime. We went to the lounge car and got a snack and sat down and enjoyed the scenery, read books, played games and actually had conversations.

Our tickets included a dinner (it was awesome by the way) and then it was off to bed for the kiddos. We arrived in Carbondale, IL at 3am Thursday. Now, i will say that the times of arrival were a little to be desired but it was an adventure for all of us and we had a BLAST!! Mom and Dad dropped the car off for us in Carbondale and mailed the key so we had a car waiting for us. We got to the house at about 6am after stopping for breakfast and then we crashed hard for about 3 hours...LOL

Ready for deployment...

Richie brought home some toys from work and the kids of course had to try them on. They are ready for anything now.

Date Night...

The annual awards for Seth's martial arts was in January as well. I took him the dinner and we had a great time. He won an award for Dojo Spirit. Grace and Richie went to dinner that night to an Italian restaurant. Since I was putting make-up on Grace was in the bathroom with me and decided she needed some too.

Gulfarium...

I am once again WAY behind on the blogging thing. I have had these pictures for a month now and just uploaded them to the computer. We haven't been a very exciting bunch lately, or we have and I just haven't taken my camera with me so that I can actually enjoy the view with my tow eyes rather than through the camera lense.

Grace and I set out one day in January to the Gulfarium. They were doing a new Multi-Species show with the dolphins and sea lions. It was a training show, where they explain how they train some of the animals. It was very informative and they did more tricks. This is Zach the dolphin and he is the biggest at the Gulfarium. His mother and sister are there as well in the solo dolphin show.

He and Princess painted pictures for us and you can purchase thier paitings in the gift shop. They are quite good!!

They did a little surfing for us and lots of waves...

As we were leaving Zach was showing off with the ball right next to me in the tank. I think these animals are so beautiful, but mine and Seth's favorite are the manatees. One of these years we are going to go swimming with the manatees.

The next show was in the dolphin tank with Delilah and Lily.

Lily was not up for showing off that day so Delilah had to do all the work....LOL