My Painted Office/Craft Room

We finally got around to painting our office. We didn't do it originally because we didn't want to have to move all the books out. The creation of new bookcases made the decision to paint easier. :) We decided that the new bookcases are going to go into our bedroom so that left a bunch of room open for furniture rearrangement. I decided to use the same color in the office that we did in the living room for a cohesive look. I put the idea out there for painting the ceiling in the office too, and I was shot down. I think it looks nice and now there are only 3 rooms left to be painted in our house: the laundry room, the master bedroom and master bathroom. Our house was in disarray for a few days while we painted but thankfully the office only required two coats of paint. Not all of the furniture made it back into the office: the large bookcase, the colorful drawer cart, and the dark wood desk all found new homes. The dark desk now lives in our bedroom and the other two storage items don't get to come back into my house. :) The only thing that has made it back onto the wall is my white shelf, everything else I haven't decided where/how I want it to go and to look. I'm going to have Andrew make a new frame for my white board since it's very broken and then I'm going to take of the flowers and I think paint the frames brown for the cork board and white board. I think on the wall that you can see from the living room I will do a picture collage with family pictures and such. We'll see. Here are more pictures than you ever thought you wanted of my new office: 

The closest thing I have to a before picture

*Update*

I found this in the Photo Booth pictures on the Mac. Not sure why but it's inverted. It's another almost before picture. :)

It was like the office threw up furniture in our living room

At least we could still see the TV

All the books and other stuff took up residence in my bedroom

Craft/office supplies taking up space in my room

Putting things back together

The new location for two of the desks

Final furniture placement 

The work area

The wall with stuff on it

Inside looking out

Our Busy Life

You wouldn't know it from *all* the blogging I've been doing lately but we've had a fairly busy 1st quarter of 2011. January started out uneventful and ended with a trip for Josie and me to Washington for my Grandma Lercher's funeral. It truly was a celebration of her life, we all told stories on her and laughed and cried and sang, "The Old Gray Mare". I completely forgot to take pictures the whole time I was there but I had fun catching up with all the family that came. There were a lot of cousins that it had been many many years since I had seen them. I stayed at Andrew's parent's house because I was pretty sure that all of the housing options on my side of the family would be filled, I was right. Also I really enjoy hanging out with Andrew's parents.

Can you believe that this is only a fraction of Grandma's posterity?

We wore purple as a tribute to her

Andrew's sister Stephanie turned 40 while I was there and her husband, Sean, threw her a surprise birthday party at an Irish Pub. Josie and I went and had some yummy food and totally surprised Stephanie. They had a live bag piper playing and Josie fell asleep to his playing. The bag piper was playing when Stephanie walked in and she turned to her friend and said, "Hey these are the guys that played our [annual St. Patrick's Day] party." Her friend turned and looked at her and said, "I know." Then she looked around and realized that she knew everyone in the room and that her parents were even there. :)

We got notification that Andrew's Grandma Gardner passed away while I was on the airplane flying home. So I literally got home and unpacked just to repack to drive to Wyoming for her funeral. Andrew's grandma was a Marine so her funeral wasn't as lively as my grandma's but it was still a beautiful service. They did the traditional military funeral gun salute and firing at the graveside service, it really made an impression on me. Peter loved the snow, there was about 2 feet or more on the ground, but he wouldn't leave his gloves on so his hands got cold but he got upset when he had to come in and warm them up.

Grandma & Grandpa Gardner's wedding picture (they were both Marines)

I had a minor meltdown when my diaper bag went missing. Both Andrew and I searched the church high and low for it but couldn't find it. We were prepared to give it up as lost and just leave without it when we ran into Andrew's Aunt Ann and family at the restaurant in Afton. Originally we were going to eat at Rulon's Burgers (he won the Olympic medal for wrestling a few years back, he's Andrew's dad's cousin or 2nd cousin or something like that) but Andrew's brother's decided that they didn't want a burger from the same place you pump gas. I had noticed the restaurant on our trip through Afton and suggested it as our alternative eating place. Everyone agreed and when we walked in who was sitting there waiting for their food but Andrew's Aunt Ann and family. I mentioned to her that I had lost my diaper bag and she said that the bishop had found it and asked her if she knew whose it was and she said no so he had locked it in his office for safe keeping. She happened to have his number so I called him up and he brought it to the restaurant where we were. I was SO relieved, my camera among other important necessities were in there. No pictures for this event either. :(

When we got back we were informed that it was a good time for us to be away because there had been a major nasty sickness that went around while we were gone. It took until the end of the month but we did get it. Poor Peter was SO sick I felt so bad for him, he got so upset when he threw up, he would try and run away from it, and then just when we thought he was feeling better, just in time for Josie's blessing (I'll do a separate post for that), he had a relapse and was worse. I'm grateful it was just a really nasty flu instead of RSV, croup or pneumonia all of which we knew several kids in our area that had all of those. Josie was lucky that she only had a bit of congestion for a while. Sometime in the mix of all of this my brother Reed announced that he and his girlfriend Audrey were engaged and going to be married in March in Las Vegas. We were SO excited to hear this for two reasons: #1 we LOVE Audrey and #2 Vegas is only an 8 hour drive from us so it would be easy for us to go to the wedding (also going to get its own post).

My poor sick Peter

Josie and Peter "playing" together

My cloth diaper babies

My cute Josie sporting her new winter gear

Food, Food and More Food!!!

If you're on Facebook at all then you've noticed lately how much I've been posting about making food. Part of the reason is I've been finding really great deals on bulk amounts of produce through a food co-op called Bountiful Baskets. So far I have canned dill pickles and salsa on my own and apple pie filling with a friend using food from the co-op. I have also canned blueberry-lime jam with some friends because the blueberries were on sale.

 All my pickles minus 2 jars. Andrew keeps asking if he can eat them yet.

 I made 1 batch of each type of salsa, so I have 4 varieties.

 

 Aren't they pretty?

 All my salsas set up for my salsa tasting open house. :)

 

Yummy!!!

 

I totally stole this idea from my friend Amanda.

 What better place to store my canned food than in the kitchen?

 

Most of the apple pie filling. It's still on my counter since we just canned everything yesterday.

  

The rest of the apple pie filling.

 

 
I have also started once a month cooking (OAMC) with another friend. We've only done it once but we're  already planning our meals for next time. In fact we have a blog specifically to discuss and plan our meals: http://freezercookingexperiment.blogspot.com/. The reason I've finally been able to do OAMC is because I found an awesome freezer on craigslist for a reasonable price. I love being able to buy meat when it's on sale and stock up our freezer.

My lovely craigslist freezer (it's frostless)!

 All stocked up after cooking all day and meat sales.

Yummy meals ready for eating.

It All Started With Salsa

I bought a 20 pound box of tomatoes to make salsa with and got through two batches before I ran out of peppers and various other things LONG before I ran out of tomatoes. So this morning I drove to Fry's to pick up some more so I could continue to make salsa today. I also ran out of jars to put the salsa in (I hadn't specifically bought jars for salsa I was just using the leftovers from making pickles). So I go to the canning isle in Fry's and even though the jars are on sale I know they are cheaper at Walmart. So I get my veggies and then I pack Peter back into the van to head down to Walmart for the jars. As I'm getting Peter out of the van in the Walmart parking lot I discover he is poopy and needs his diaper changed. So I debate with myself and decide to change his diaper in the van. Peter frequently has issues staying still while getting his diaper changed and even more so when he's on one of those diaper changing stations. So I put my bag back in the car and close Peter's door and go around to the other side of the van to get in and change Peter's diaper. But when I get to the other side I can't get in. I try all of the doors just to make sure I really have just locked my keys and an unbuckled Peter in the van in the Walmart parking lot. So now I really start to freak out because my cell phone is also in the car so I can't call anyone. I'm hyperventilating and a lady walks by me and I ask her if she has a cell phone... she doesn't but she's meeting someone on the other side of the parking lot and he does. So they come back and I call they ONLY phone number other than my own that I have memorized, Andrew's cell which is typically at his desk while he's in the lab. So he doesn't answer and the guy who let me use his cell phone goes inside to see if there's anyone in Walmart that can help me. He brings back a manager and she uses her cell phone to call the police. They send a cop, an ambulance and a fire truck to help me. The firefighter tries to use his tools to get the door open and the cop calls a tow truck (that takes AAA whom I would have called but didn't have the number since my wallet was also in the car) that will be here in 20 minutes to get the door open. Meanwhile the paramedic and I are trying to keep Peter occupied and in his seat which lasts for quite some time but he got interested in what all the guys were doing and climbs/falls out of his seat and starts to crawl around the van. He goes for the back seat first but there isn't much for him to do so he changes direction eats some random piece of food and then climbs into the front passenger seat. The firefighters were getting anxious to get the door open and the cop calls a different tow truck company that can make it in 5 minutes. Peter is in the front seat and starts playing with the door handle which if he had been strong enough he could have gotten himself out. Then the tow truck guy shows up and Peter gets interested in all the middle console buttons and we get him out. Then I still have to change Peter's diaper and get jars. Whew! I decided that we'll go into the store to the family bathroom to change him and I quickly got the jars and left. So I checked out of Fry's at 10:37am and didn't check out at Walmart until 12:05pm. Poor Peter was a little bit warm and very tired from all the climbing around he did that he fell asleep in the car on the way home. He, of course, was happy and fine through the whole ordeal, while I was an awful mess until they unlocked the door and got Peter out. What a morning! And now I need to finish making salsa. I almost just went home after they unlocked the car but I thought that would have been a TOTAL waste of the morning instead of just a partial waste. But that trip to Walmart ended up being $40 more expensive than the ones at Fry's. Oh well, maybe my car insurance will pick up the tab? Doubtful. At least it wasn't 100 degrees and it wasn't raining.