Morton Madness

Justin was leaving for Wyoming for his pronghorn hunt.  I decided that since he was going to be gone for 7 days I was going to redo his office for him.  He has now worked from home for almost three years and his office is HORRIBLE.  I have NEVER liked the paint since we moved into the house and the BizMart furniture was so big and bulky and looked cheap. Since I figured I could not do everything I wanted in 7 days I went ahead and gave his old desk away and credenza.  I did not even want anything for it, I would have paid someone to take it away! So, he had no idea what I had planned but I did have to put the new desk, credenza and shelf in there just to get it out of the way.  I did not put any decor out because I wanted him to be somewhat surprised. There was NO overhead lighting in there so first things first... I got an electrician out here and of course ordered a chandelier.  He was going to have to damage the sheet rock to feed the wire up to ...

So now that the office looks amazing, the formal living and dining looked HORRIBLE!  Mom and I figured we could paint in no time!  Mom and her gimp hand cut in as I started rolling.  Of course we had to take the drapes down and the blinds (thank goodness Fagan came and took down the blinds).   So, it is now day 5 of 7 that Justin will be gone.  The clock is ticking... then we get the text that they might come home early! WHAT? NO, you can't!  You have NO idea what we are doing and I need to be done before you guys get home and everything needs to be put back together :) So, we whip out the dining and living and get the drapes hung back up and it looks SO MUCH BETTER,  until... to be continued... Posted via Blogaway

... we look into the guest bath and it looks horrible!  Off to Lowes I go for another gallon of paint!  I knocked this out in 45 minutes.   Going forward a few weeks we decide it is time to get rid of the pedastool sink... in fact, it is past time!  I got the go ahead and of course called my personal shopper right away!  Nori got on it and we went shopping and found a new mirror, sink, faucet, lighting and some accessories.   Posted via Blogaway

6:20 came really early for a 5th grader and a kindergartner!  Sophia popped right up when I went to wake her up.  She was SO excited to get ready and go.  We met at the gazebo for the annual neighborhood crew pic and Sophia was NOT having it.  She sat and pouted and I thought that the rest of the walk to school was going to be horrible.  After the picture we started walking and thank goodness she perked back up.   We walk into the school and to her pod and she takes her backpack off and hangs it up, talks to Mrs.  Lowrey and then walks in the room and sits down.  I asked if I could take her picture and she looked up at me and said, "sure" and smiled!  WHAT THE WHAT. I took a picture, hugged and kissed her and ran out of the room.  She did AWESOME!   I could not wait for them to get off the bus so I could hear about their day.  She got off that bus like she had done it a million times!  She told me she had a g...

Jonah was so excited to be able to sleep in this year, he does not have to leave until 7:35 to catch the bus.  I walked Luke and Sophia to school so I did not get to see him off but Justin said he did not seem nervous at all.  So, we are still in the first week of school, praise the Lord and we have until Friday to get a schedule change request in.  I know I am mother of the year and I did EVERYTHING I could think of to talk him out of orchestra and maybe change to art or theater.   So, Jonah has now changed his mind about the violin, he now wants to play the cello!  HUH?  WHAT?  Do you even KNOW what a cello is or how big it is??? At this point, I am dying!  The cello is as big as him, I even told him he would practice for an hour a day on top of homework and going to martial arts.  He was NOT changing his mind folks!  He brought home the list of everything he would have to have for playing the cello.  * the c...

We went to meet Sophia and Lukes teachers tonight.  Sophia was really excited... until we got there.  As you can see she did NOT want her picture taken with Mrs. Lowrey.  We then went to the 5th grade pod to meet Mrs.  Ivarra.  After unloading our school supplies we headed to the annual neighborhood Palios dinner.  Food was not that great but the kids always have fun with all the other neighborhood kiddos.

Today Jonah went to Husky Camp to pick up his schedule and get his locker.  While the parents went to hear the principal we left the kids with their schedules so they could walk through it so they would know where to go on Monday.   So, notice Jonahs first period class, orchastra!  I seriously can not even imagine what possessed him to choose this as an elective.  First he was going to play the violin... does he even know what that is???  Posted via Blogaway

Stefanie and the kids came for a quick visit.  We swam and cooked out.  The kids had a blast seeing each other and swimming.  They even had a dance off on the rock, we only got video and no pics.  They were doing the whip and nae nae!

Stef and the kids came in town for a quick visit.  We cooked out at our house and swam and decided to have a huge sleepover.  I finally got all eight kids settled and in bed about 10:00.  Around 11:00 I heard one of the kids crying so I flew out of bed and ran into the living room to where the girls were sleeping.  It was Harper... she was having a night terror.   I have been fortunate enough never to have experience it but Harper has had them and so has Stefs kids.  I remember them telling me you cannot wake the child and just to hold them and try to calm them.  I am pretty sure that Harper is the STRONGEST FOUR YEAR OLD EVER!  That poor baby was screaming at the top of her lungs that it was her turn to dance but she was NOT going to do it.  She was stiffening up, throwing her head back and yelling.  I was a nervous wreck.  I just held her close and rocked her.   She finally calmed down after what seemed to be hours ...

Carlie sent me this text!  Love my sweet Noah. Posted via Blogaway

We got up and had breakfast at the hotel before heading to the airport.  Mitzi FINALLY got her DIET COKE!  It was becoming a joke because every time she ordered one they NEVER brought it to her.   ... and the chips, we took these chips everywhere!   At the airport heading home and telling Daph goodbye!  Hate that she could not come with us... until next time ladies!

We woke up this morning and packed up the car and headed to Denver for the rest of our trip.  We stopped for breakfast right outside of Mt. Princeton and then hit the road.  We arrived at our Hotel, The Monoco.  We got two rooms and were all bunking up for the last night.  We went down to the lobby for free happy hour and a massage.  Then headed up to the rooms to get ready for dinner at Work and Class.   For some reason we decided to WALK to dinner.  It was a little further than I cared to walk seeing as how I think my body was bleeding all over from the 10 miles DOWN the mountain we had walked the day before.  I was smart and wore flat shoes at least.   It was going to be a while before our table was ready so we walked across the street to Dada for a drink.   After a great dinner we decided to WALK some more to tour downtown.  We stopped for a drink and dessert then back to the hotel.   ...

We were up bright and early the next morning and ready to hike!  Daphne had done her research and we knew we needed to be on the mountain by 7:00 a.m. and get started and we estimated that we would be done by about 1:00 p.m.  Jenny's back was hurting and she decided she would stay back at the cabin so the 6 of us headed out. This was my very first selfie! After we took the selfie and got back in the car Autumn noticed that her bladder had leaked,  it was almost empty.  (remember this for later). Next, we started up the mountain.  Not sure I was expecting the "road" to be this bumpy.  On one side it was the side of the mountain and on the other side it was straight down!  I was in the front seat thank goodness and we were bouncing all over the place.  Julianne was in the back with her head between her legs talking herself out of a frenzy.   We were attempting to drive up to 10,500  ft. because that is where the tra...