A Piano . . . at last

For years I have been wanting a piano, but a new or newer piano has never been in the budget.  I finally started looking on Craigslist, but everything that came up in my price range in my area had descriptions such as: "traveled across the plains in a covered wagon" or "the piano has been sitting in my barn for the last 20 years and may have been through a flood or two." or "I'm not sure this piano can even be tuned."  Finally, one day, a few months ago, I got on Craigslist and found a piano well under my spending limit that actually looked like it might be worth a look.  I called the owner and Jeremy and I went over that evening and looked at it.  I played it a little and was impressed that it actually sounded pretty good.  So, by the next afternoon, it was sitting in my living room.  Now, this piano was only $180.00, so it had a few cosmetic issues, but I was kind of glad about that.  My boys are still kind of hard on furniture, so I thought it would be nice to have a piano that I wouldn't freak out over if my two year old ran into it with his big dump truck.  On the other hand, the piano was still going to be the focal point of my living room, so I wanted it to look nice and to go with the other furnishings in there.  I started researching how to refinish a piano, and decided that a $180 piano was probably worth the risk.  I got out the steel wool and stain and got to work (with Jeremy's help).

This is what we started with.

It really doesn't look bad in this picture, but it was a little beat up and it didn't match the decor in the rest of the room.  After a little elbow grease, this is how our $180 number looks now.

I think it is a big improvement.  Jeremy thinks it needs one more coat of stain, and after looking at these photos, I think he may be right.  For some reason, in real life those color variations don't show up as much.

I still love it though and I am glad I took the risk and refinished it.  Now, I just need to save up the money to have it tuned, so I can actually enjoy playing it. : )

A Conversation with Jack

Tonia:  "Hey Jack.  What do you learn about in Primary?"

Jack:  "Ummmm"

Tonia:  "Do you learn about Jesus?"

Jack:  "No.  We learn about BigFoot."

Dallin's Baptism Quilt

I made this quilt for Dallin as a reminder of his baptism day.  I wish these pictures did it justice.  It is a simple pattern and I was able to make it up quickly. (Which is a good thing, since I pieced another quilt top for him and then decided I didn't like it.  I threw this one together in a hurry, but I am sooooo much happier with it.)

It is backed with soft white minky and quilted in straight(ish) lines. I have decided that whenever you back a quilt with minky it makes the quilting process a million times harder, but it is worth it. Dallin loves his quilt and sleeps with it every night.

I had this simple label made and added it to the bottom corner block of his quilt.  Hopefully he will always love it as much as he does now.

Dallin is Eight!

 

 Dallin turned eight and was baptized last week!!!

 

 

He was great at the baptism and we are so happy with what a good boy he is.

 

The whole crew right before the baptism.

Back home after the baptism.  He is an official member of the church now!!

 

Eight years old is a pretty important year in our church.  It has me feeling a little nostalgic and so I hope you will indulge me and let me share a few pictures of Dallin through the years . . .

 



You've come a long way buddy!!  We love you and are so happy that you are in our family.  Happy Birthday!!

First Day of Preschool

Jack started his second year of preschool last week.  I am so grateful that we have such a good preschool teacher in our ward and all of my boys have loved going to her school.  I know Jack will have another great year in her class.

First Day of School

Dallin and Thomas started school yesterday.  I grew up where we didn't go back to school until the end of August, so it is always kind of hard for me to send them back when it feels like summer is still in full swing.  Oh well.  I could go on and on about my thinking on this, but I will spare you all the rant.  I am just grateful we don't live in Holbrook.  They started school on August 1st.  Yuck!!

Thomas is in first grade this year.  He has the same teacher that Dallin had last year and she is soooo nice.  I know Thomas will love being in her class and will do a great job in there.  We miss having him come home at 11:00, but he loves school, so I think he is happy to be there all day.

Dallin started 2nd grade.  We don't know his teacher.  She taught at his school several years ago, but this is her first year back.  Dallin says that she is nice and seems like she will be a good teacher. Let's hope so.  He loves school too, so I'm sure he will have another great year.

Boys Bathroom Update

I decided many months ago that my boys bathroom was SCARY and in desperate need of help.  I actually loved the paint color and the decor in the little bathroom, but my boys had made such a stinky awful mess of the place, Jeremy and I decided that the only solution would be to pull out the vanity and replace it with a sleek pedestal sink.  I won't go into detail about why this was necessary, but since the vanity is so close to the toilet and I have 5 little boys, you can probably imagine.  Yikes!!  So - - since we were pulling out the vanity and replacing tiles,  I decided that it was probably time that I give up my feminine, pretty, yellow bathroom and boy it up a little (not too much.)

So, here is a look at the new boys bathroom.

BEFORE

Notice the toilet seat is up.  Boys!!

I managed to notice the toilet seat and put it down for this one.

We had a towel bar in this bathroom that was too high for most of the boys, and lets face it - - they were never going to neatly hang their towels up on it anyway.  Therefore I had a big problem with towels all over the floor and way too many in the laundry.

 We ripped out the vanity and medicine cabinet.  (I really don't like medicine cabinets.)  We also decided that the mirror was too big for the new pedestal sink and ripped it out too.  Luckily, we had just enough tiles in storage to cover where the vanity had been.

AFTER

This is the new place!  A little more boy friendly in every way!!  We gave it a fresh new coat of green paint (My Grandma Larsen would have loved it!!)  and a new shower curtain.

We replaced the mirror with one I had in storage.  It was in our bathroom in our house in Mesa, and I loved it so much I couldn't part with it, even though we haven't had a real place for it - - until now!!!  We also decided to make a little cubby with shelves where the medicine cabinet had been.  After all with no medicine cabinet and no vanity, we needed someplace for our kids to put their toothbrushes.  So far, I am happy with it.

This was by far the best thing we did in this bathroom.  We replaced the towel bar with this hook board.  I made tabs for each of the boys towels out of fabric that they chose and cut their initials out of vinyl and put them on the wall above their hooks.  Then we had a little training session and I made each of the boys show me how to identify and unhook their towels and then put them back in the proper place when they were done.  It has worked like a charm and for the past 6 weeks, I have only had to give out two reminders to hang their towels back up.  It is sooooooo nice!!!

Overall, I am very happy with the changes.  They have made life easier for sure.  But, I have to admit, sometimes I miss my pretty yellow bathroom.  If only it could have stayed pretty and, most of all, fresh smelling! :)  Oh well!!