Refreshed and Renewed

So a lot has happened since I last blogged, so this is going to be a very condensed...and possibly out of order post. Hopefully, that means that I'll be able to keep up and be better about it again, but I'm pretty positive I've said that before. The driving force to this post is this....

That would be the printed out version of my mom's journal entries that my dad and I have been working on since January. Dad retyped the entries, I plugged them into a blog, reformatted them, added a few pictures, roped Shane into designing the cover and then met with a company to mass produce them for dad! They turned out great and I read my thick novel yesterday....even though I had already read it when putting it together, it was still nice to read it all again. Then today, I read the book mom had actually written for us about 6 years ago that included all of her memories of her childhood, college and adulthood up until 2015 when she had that book published for us.

Shane bought a truck. He's super excited about it, I've been excited about the yard waste hauling capabilites....so much so that I tore down an entire banana grove that had gotten a rot in our backyard. 

Sadly, I have only driven the truck one time, parked it in our driveway, didn't pull the Emergency brake all the way up or put it in gear....so now the back end is not so pretty looking....at least Shane took it all in stride, but he really did love that truck, it's just not quite so loved anymore. Hopefully one day we will get it fixed so he can love it again!

Buddy has been looking for projects, so he dremmeled himself a wooden sheath for one of his knives...

It turned out pretty cool!

Buddy turned 17, and since COVID has ruined our lives in more ways than one, we invited some cousins and went to Disneyland, where we of course had to have a character breakfast!

The boys made droids, light sabers, and I got to live out my Disney Princess dreams!

The people we were cat sitting for officially gave us their cats since they ended up moving back to Europe and we've been taking Mittens on frequent night walks. We tried to take Mongo, but he pooped in the backpack, which we made Shane clean up, and we have never taken him again.

Buddy loves to harrass the cats, and they love it!

Buddy got to try out someone's one wheel electric skateboard...and of course he loved it!

Since Buddy is being homeschooled this year, I force him on hikes, he does not love it!

We made a surprise visit to see my sister, and my niece ended up having COVID so we turned right back around back home! Thank goodness for flying standby!

Right after Disneyland, Buddy and I hopped on a plane to Cinncinati to visit with my old college friend Holly....

She took the whole day off of work just so she could play with us!! It was well worth it! We even got to see this treasure on the side of the road....

That would be a dead dear with a "feel better soon" balloon attached! Sometimes I really love people! Then Buddy and I headed up to Lima, OH to meet up with my dad and his siblings.

We dropped off one of his brothers from the reunion and then drove to hang out with my Aunt Jean for a few days. We rested up and then drove down to North Carolina to hang out with my brother Chuck...

Apparently, they both needed more rest, because that is both of them asleep! It would have been weird to be in Charlotte and not have anything to do with the Motor Speedway....so we had to do it!

Buddy I think was more interested in the personalized motor speedway at Chuck's house! Seriously, Chuck has his own golf cart and Buddy thought that was an invitation to go 4 wheeling.....

I had my birthday while we were at Chucks. Buddy and I were supposed to hike Grandfather Mountain, but Buddy had a headache, so he made it up to me by letting me rock him! 

(It almost made up for me missing the hike) 

Chuck and Renee took us up to Morrow mountain to make me feel a little bit better about missing out on my favorite thing....nature!

When we left Chuck's house we drove to Harpeth, Tennessee to stay the night at a cute little Airbnb. This one had a porch swing...

A fire pit....

and an amazing hike within 5 minutes of the house....(Narrows of the Harpeth)

After we were done with the hike, we high tailed it to Vilonia, Arkansas to stay at a defunct Missle Base....yep, you read that right. I originally saw this Airbnb on a travel blogger's site and thought if I were ever anywhere near there I NEEDED TO STAY! Well, I got my chance and it did not disappoint. Buddy was actually sore the next morning from his multiple facetime video chats with his friends where he ran from level to level to show all of the very awesome things....he loved it so much that I actually let him take the very amazing and awesome master bedroom, while dad and I became bunkmates on a lower level.....I am pretty certain I deserve an award for that act of kindness!!!

The emergency escape hatch

That was the very, very thick door to close us in at night

The entry portal. I think Buddy spent an hour here making videos with his lightsaber!

After we were done, we headed to Amarillo, Texas for the night. We ate at a famous steakhouse.....it was disappointing, but the rolls were yummy. Then I forced the boys the next morning to go see Cadillac Ranch with me...

Buddy and dad both thought it would have been more impressive if it had more cars! I kind of agree! Then Buddy got to drive on Route 66 and I got to take the best picture in the universe!

The boys were equally enthusiastic!

We ended up staying two nights in Williams, Arizona where we got to see Smoky the Bear

and ride the Grand Canyon Railway to the Grand Canyon!

Then we decided we should probably get home, dad was missing his dog. So we hopped in the car and headed back to Erda, stopping in Beaver of course for the obligatory picture!

Buddy has been forced on more hikes, that he absolutely loves

Shane's coworkers threw a Great Gatsby party so I got to live out my wonderful dreams of dressing the part...

Buddy got to join us last minute, and he was so sad he didn't have a 20's outfit too....we did the best we could, but that would have been awesome!

I ordered Shane's Christmas present and it showed up a few days ago....Shane's oldest boy and his fiancee. They get to stay with us for 2 weeks for Christmas, which is pretty awesome. We took them on a snorkel cruise that they hadn't been able to do before...and I got to take lots of pictures of me with my mouth wide open!

Not sure what tomorrow will bring, but hopefully it'll be a super fantastic one!

 

Makeover!!

When Buddy and I returned home from helping my dad move, I started into some renovation projects of our own to find me something to do and get rid of things that were really not aesthetically pleasing. Buddy's bathroom had mismatched wood coloring for his cabinets.  The bathroom walls were painted white with  miscellaneous stains that I don't even want to think about where those came from, and his vanity had the ugliest beige tiles you could imagine! When I was talking about redoing the bathroom with Buddy, he asked me if I could redo his bathroom with a "pirate" theme. His wish is my command (also, how cute is that boy at 16 still wanting a theme! Since I'm not rich, and I was coming off of a successful renovation at my dad's, I started researching some do-it-yourself fixes for the bathroom vanity. Best solution I found was concrete...I decided on not coloring the concrete for a more "rustic" vibe for his pirate vibe, it was relatively easy...although I did freak myself out with the first apply because I could just imagine the destruction I might be causing. It took a few layers and a heck of a lot of sanding....and I have never been so careful with taping off in my life-but it looks way better than that tile ever did (well, maybe the tile looked better in the 80's. 

He's had this for a month and it's held up really well, and he loves it, which is a bonus. I repainted all of the walls a crisp white and painted all of the mismatched wood white and added on leftover handles from my kitchen renovation. We installed a cool pump style faucet that Buddy totally loves, and added some accessories to fit the theme. I found these octopuses (or is it octopii?) online....

Instead of buying new light fixtures, I just spray painted our old ones black and added a copper top layer to match...

 

I found this porthole mirror to jazz up the empty space behind the toilet...

We actually have this mirror that was left from another house that we lived in, so we took it when we moved, it fits right in, and I gave it the same black/copper top spray.

I'm still waiting on the pirate battle poster that I'm going to frame and put in the bathroom to tie it all together, and I'm planning on having the bathtub replaced since whoever installed it the first time did a crappy job so we've never been able to use it. So that's what we have so far...not bad, but I wish I had before pictures so you could actually be impressed, instead it looks like a 6th grader's art project...which is okay, I was a good 6th grader. In other news, Buddy finally got his license... 

He has yet to ask for the keys to drive himself somewhere, but he really likes us, so I guess he doesn't think he needs to go anywhere! So all in all a super fantastic....trying to renovate on a budget, day!