Finished Project

We started a project about 6 months ago.... and just finished it yesterday! Eric is on spring break right now, that might have something to do with it...

So we bought a new table and chairs off Craigslist for a steal of a deal, the last one we had was nice but huge, and since we moved into our new place there is not as much room in the dining area. We looked at the pictures online and it looked great, and the guy even offered to deliver it. When he brought it we just took a quick glance at it in his truck and told him we would take it. It's in great condition except for a burn mark on top, and they wanted to get rid of it. So we loaded it into our living room, paid the guy, and he was off. About a half hour later, we noticed a distinct, very potent smell being emitted from the set...smoke. Ug. We forgot to ask if they smoked, and it was a very strong smell. We were so disappointed, I loved it! So we tried a few things to get the smell out. It worked pretty well on the wood, but the chairs were upholstered so we knew it was all the way in the cushions. Long story short, we bought new foam and fabric and reupholstered them but it has taken until just yesterday to finish. But they look great, no more smoke smell, and I feel like I have a brand new table set!

If anyone has any ideas on how to get a burn mark out of the table top, it's pretty deep and my solution right now is to cover it up with place mats :)

Now to get the old table sold...

Little Laughs

Funny things my kid said this morning:

Chase, calling from the bathroom-- "Hey mommy, I need a little bit of help in here!"

Ok it was funny coming from a 2 year old...

Ethan picked up my phone and wanted to play with it-- "Do you have any dude games on here?" Me: "What are dude games?" Ethan: "You know, when you shoot people..."

It's a Sign

Last night my friend Madison watched my boys while I went to Kindergarten Registration for Ethan (we'll save that discussion for another time/post...I can't believe he's going to start this fall!). It's been really warm this week, probably 68 last night, so she took them and her little girl to the park about half mile away. Ethan was on his scooter and Chase was on his trike, and the boys kept getting ahead of her so she called to them to wait for her at the stop sign. Madison is from North Carolina so she's got that fun southern drawl, so when she said "sign" it came out more like "sahn."
She kept saying-- "Stop when you get to the stop sign!" and finally Chase turns around and goes "SIGN" very emphatically.
Thank you, Chase. Good thing she's got a good sense of humor. :)

Aurora Borealis

I got an email from my dad that made me miss Alaska. I heard talk on our local news channel last night of people being able to see the Northern Lights from here if you drove out of town far enough, but I didn't believe it. Then I got this from my Dad:

We drove out to see the northern lights last night and what a display! Everyone was going up to flattop so we went the other direction to upper O’Malley and found a place to park with our lights off. That’s actually hard to do because there has been so much snow the roads are pretty narrow with high berms on either side. The moon was full and almost blinding though. Karin was on facebook seeing how good the lights were in Birchwood, Eagle River and different parts of town as comments came in from all over. However, about midnight, patience proved to be the winner. We had a display better than the fireworks finale at the fourth of July. They would grow or diminish in intensity while moving at different speeds all over the sky. It was like the heavens were shimmering and lines of light leaping in different directions. Though I have seen red in the past, these were florescent green with tips of pink on the ends. It was the most amazing lights I have ever seen.

Hope you don't mind, Dad, but I stole your email. Love you!


A local photographer took this last night. Wow, sometimes I really do miss home.
To see more of his pictures, click here.