Southside Player of the Game

Cooper's baseball coach pours more love into these boys than I have ever seen before. He is also tough and doesn't accept excuses. One thing I really like is that he choses a "Southside Player of the Game" after each game. It is a great way to encourage the boys and he really makes sure that everyone gets this honor for something that they did that was better than they could have done before. Here are a couple of the times Cooper won this honor:

Swimming at the Y

On the days we don't have baseball, I struggle with what to do with the kids to keep everyone happy. Cooper just wants to search YouTube for useful tips like how to make a fireball you can hold in your hand with lighter fluid. Will would rather die than leave the house (and trust me his screams when I say we are leaving to go somewhere sound like he is dying). And Paris usually just goes with the flow.

So on Thursday we decided to go swimming at the YMCA pool that we have a membership to. It was a great time! Cooper and Will played games together and didn't scream at each other at all. And Paris even jumped up and down with joy and said, "This is the best day EVER!" She also enjoyed practicing her swimming skills without a life vest. We will definitely be back!

The Treehouse

Austin won a one-night stay at the Treehouse Vineyards in Monroe in an actual treehouse. It was a beautiful place, I never knew just a few miles off 74 is such beauty. We don't drink alcohol so we didn't have the wine there but we did taste some really yummy muscadine cider. We also ate at two really cute places, The Stone Table and Sweetea Cafe. The historic downtown in Monroe is great, I never knew.

The Treehouse was just what you would expect, a teeny little kitchen, bathroom and couch for the living area, then upstairs in the loft was basically a bed and dresser. It was so much fun doing something out of the ordinary.

View from the deck of the Treehouse

Another view, I was clearly hogging the hammock chair the whole time!

Ottoman Refreshed

Notice the classy duct tape. I promise I only put this on to hold it down when the slipcover is on it.

We desperately need new furniture, ours is beat up, has cracks from people's butts sitting in the same place, burned marks where I had to clean off hot-pink nail polish with acetone, and various rips. We can't decide whether it is better to get new furniture so we don't look like white trash, or just keep the other furniture for awhile because the kids can't really make it worse, right? I thought about making slipcovers for all the furniture for a few minutes but I think I would regret that right after I cut into the fabric and couldn't return it anymore. But I did do a slipcover for the ottoman and I really like how it turned out.

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Last Day of Preschool for the P

Paris loves having pictures taken, posing and smiling big. Then she loves to look at the pictures of herself!

My Big Project This Week

Recently we had our house painted inside. We've now lived here for over 7 years and the walls were looking pretty dingy. So along with the new paint, I have been trying to do a couple other updates. We have one big great room that has really tall two-story ceilings and I have always struggled with trying to fill the space. I had a bookshelf in the corner that I liked but it was really small and this week I found something that works!

I love hunting through the old furniture at Salvation Army and Goodwill to find things that I can repaint and redo to my liking. So I found this big ole piece of oak junk at Salvation Army for $35.55. I knew it would be a lot of work but I had a vision.  Here is what it looked like when I bought it:



Notice the sweet 1990s oak, the frosted glass in the doors and the lovely hardware.

I knew what I wanted to do - replace the hardware, take the bottom doors off, move the shelves around a bit and add a new shelf. Then take out the glass and add chicken wire, oh yeah, and add a back pice to hold it all together.  Here are a few pics of the process:

I painted a coat of primer, and then a coat of the bluish color I liked. After letting that dry for 24 hours (did I mention the weather was in the 90s this week and it was REALLY hot working on this in the garage.) I took out my new sander and a file and my antiquing stain and went at it. The thing I like about distressing furniture is that you can't mess it up. So I had to hit the whole thing a few times with a sledgehammer to get the nails in? Who cares, love the dents it makes.

So after all that work - here it is, and I love it! Though it did occur to me that I took an old piece of crap, and made it into . . . another old piece of crap!

Bits and Pieces

• Is Paris 15 years old already? This morning she told me that I am "ruining her life" because I wouldn't let her have a popsicle for breakfast.
• By the way, Will wore two different shoes to school today. Whatever, at least he didn't scream at me when I woke him for school.
• Cooper's new favorite pastimes are searching Youtube for useful tips like making a fake quarter to hack into a vending machine and using cologne and a lighter to make a blowtorch. In case you were wondering how to do this, it really works.

You know you are getting old when . . .

You wake up and are so busy that you both forget it is your 13th anniversary! I had given Austin an early present so I wasn't thinking about our anniversary today. I was focused on all the errands and cleaning I have today and how annoyed I am at the Siskey YMCA rennovations that left me with a crappy little weight room with only two sets of weights this morning.  Austin was a little late for work and then had to come back because he forgot his laptop so he was a little frazzled. Then when I looked at the calendar I finally remembered that our anniversary is today!

I called Austin to tell him Happy Anniversary and we both laughed that we forgot. I also complained to him that I felt so stressed about the day. He said not to worry and just get what I can done. Then I said, "I know I will be happy when you bring home my 2-carat diamond today! " He just chuckled, alas I don't think this is the year, again.

Happy Anniversary to you Austin, my best friend, confidant and person I can always trust and be myself with. Thank you for always trying to lift me up and tell me positive things. I'm glad that we can still laugh together. It's fun when we joke that it feels like we've already been married for 20 years. I love you. Here's to 70 more great years and hopefully eternity after.