One week down, one (+) to go.

Week one of LHS's production of Fiddler on the Roof is done. 

Phew. Glad we made it through!

Since opening night was on my birthday, Bill stayed with the concessions so I could see the show.

It was sooooooo good!

 She's a bit easier to spot in the following two pics.

We've concessioned four (4) times in the past week. It's a party, lemme tell ya.

 In between concessioning, we've been working away on our house goals, including tiling the backsplash in the kitchen. I'm pretty proud to say I got this project moving.

We cut the tile right on our brand spanking new countertops.

They clean up impressively, I must say.

We finished setting the tile on Saturday, grouted and caulked on Monday.

(I may or may not have finished off the area between the ovens and the fridge on Sunday. The ox was in the mire, as we needed to grout before Tuesday.)

I had to snap a couple pics of the flowers that have brightened our long days of work, performing (Mar), and concessioning.

Mar received these from her boyfriend following the show on Friday night.

 I'm not sure what "boyfriend" means these days, but he proposed boyfriend/girlfriendship on Valentine's Day, and Mar accepted. We had a mother/daughter discussion about this a few days later (I'm so glad Mar will talk about it), and, as for now, it's a "relationship." I don't think it's been very active, since Mar has been devoting all of her time to the play, so we will have to re-evaluate things if their relationship becomes more serious/intense/exclusive down the road.

She also received a cute little bouquet from her Seminary teacher.

A dear friend brought me these for my birthday.

There's that finished backsplash.

 I love it.

$100. Should've done that a long time ago.

You can also see that our floors are in the early stages of refinishing. Smells a lot like cough-producing-cancer-causing old floor finish around here today, but I'm sooooooo excited to see the finished product.

 You may be able to spot a few areas that are still in need of paint, but that will be an easy peasy lemon squeezy project, right before we list.

And here's the chaos we are living in.

 The refrigerator and kitchen table are in the family room...

...and the dining room has all kinds of miscellaneous stuff (including a pan of Rice Krispie treats ready for this upcoming weekend's concessions - we sold 5 batches last week and had people asking for them when we ran out).

I keep reminding myself that this will all be worth it.

It's been exhausting.

Even as I type, I can feel the tendonitis flare-up in my left elbow, the plantar fasciitis in my right foot, and my shoulders and neck are begging for a massage.

On top of all of this, my driver's license expired on my birthday, and my debit card was tagged due to fraudulent activity and has been blocked. I'm hoping to fix those little problems tomorrow (or the next day, since I have to stay off my floors for a good 4 hours). Today I'm going to start in on the laundry and tidying up our sleeping quarters (Shi's closet is in a bit of a disarray since we've taken over). Maybe I'll take a nap, too. I have to gear up for all the work to put this place back together once we finish up the big projects. Sooooooo much still to do.

Progress and some big news.

We are soooooo tired. It's been an exhausting few weeks. Bill and I have been madly working away on our house, and Mar has had endless hours of play practice each day. We keep telling each other that we can make it through the next two weeks. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

Here's a little of the progress we've made. I doesn't look like much now, but, believe me, it will be awesome when it all finally comes together.

Here is the island countertop AFTER we had a little Friday night demo party with the raised bar:

Here is it after the countertops have been removed and the raised bar lowered...

And here is it with the new quartz countertops installed.

The faucet and accessories have yet to be connected back up (tomorrow... please??), so it's not quite a functional kitchen again, but soon. Very soon. We will also be installing a subway tile backsplash along that back wall... sometime in the next two weeks.

Aaaand I'm trying to sell my Christmas gift on Varage Sale, as these 30" tall barstools will no longer fit under the counter. AAAAUUUUGGGGHHH.


We have pulled up all the old carpet and tack strips in the master bedroom and bath, changed out the fixtures, painted the cabinets, and added hardware. On the left of the picture below is the new shower door, yet to be installed (sometime... in the next two weeks).

We had carpet (yes, carpet) up the side of our bathtub. Don't ask me why. We will be beadboarding and trimming it out, which will look much, much better.

I know I mentioned the brass fix we did. We went from this...

...to this

And from this...

...to this

I'm telling you, people, spray paint is the answer.

Ahhhhh.... I love it!
(We ordered the oil-rubbed bronze hinges on Amazon at only a buck each, and we'll be changing out those door stoppers after the floors get refinished to the same finish, also cheap on Amazon)


Yep, we had to move out all of our enormous and heavy bedroom furniture to pull that carpet up. We thank our lucky stars that a few years back some workers left those easy glide sliders behind, which we have held on to for such a time as this.

We found all kinds of fun surprises underneath our carpet... sunflower seed shells... a double edged razor blade... lots of words written on the floor. It's crazy to think they've been there ALL ALONG. We are installing some wood-look waterproof laminate in these two rooms -- I can't wait to show you when it's finished. Bill and I have been camping out in Lo's room, which has been very comfortable and cozy {wink}.


So you may be asking WHY we are making all these long-dreamed of changes so suddenly and with a time-frame...

...we're selling our home of 15 years and moving to Castle Rock.

We closed on our new-not-so-new place today.

It's a bit of a fixer-upper, so we'll get to do this process all over again.

I'm really really excited.

It's smaller (hallelujah).
It's conveniently located. So close to so many things.
5 minutes from the freeway,
5 minutes from a hospital,
5 minutes from a movie theater,
5 minutes from the outlet stores,
5 minutes away from Cafe Rio,
Smashburger,
Mad Greens,
Mod Pizza,
Crave Burgers,
etc, etc, etc.
6 minutes away from a brand new King Soopers Marketplace.
7 minutes away from a brand new Sam's Club, TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, and Ulta.
6 to 7 minutes to the high school (should Mar decide to transfer. 20 minutes away from Legend, which is comparable to how long it took to get to the high school Tay and Britt attended.)

Maybe all of that excites me a bit because I have spent over 15 years driving 7 mins+ just to exit my neighborhood, with another 5 mins+ to get to ANYWHERE.

More on all of this another day... Mar needs the computer and I have stuff to do.
Always always stuff to do.

Pray that we'll make it through the next 2 weeks (our goal to have our house listed + 7 Fiddler On the Roof performances + Bill's annual St. Patrick's Day parade participation in Colorado Springs).
I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

Winds of change.

I have neglected the blog due to busy-ness. I'm hoping to start catching up soon... so much to share, so little time. Things are happening and changing, and I definitely want to document them, for memory's sake.

Here's just a little glimpse of life lately:

I took another quick trip to UT to hang out with my girl Evie, who is home at last.

AND I got to hang out with my girl Scarlett, too!

Ahhhhhh... the blessing of being a grammy. I love these girls.

I also visited with all my UT kids - some multiple times. I love spending time with them all!

(Bill and Mar had to stay home to go to work and school... I'm so glad to have the flexibility to go!)

Once I was home I went headfirst into home improvement projects.

My apologies for the blurry pic, but it's what I can quickly access at the moment.

See all that brass???? UGH! I've been wanting to rid myself of it FOR YEARS.

It's happening. In fact, it's happened. 

I thought I had pictures, but remembered that I had Snapchatted the pics to my kids, thus I don't really have them. I will take some and share... soon! I'm telling you, I wish I had done this simple fix long, long ago! And no, I didn't spend upwards of $800-$1000 to change out the hardware. 

Today I am purchasing paint.

I was hoping to be able to match the existing paint, to no avail.

These walls were painted 15 years ago, and we know the painters who did them thinned the paint down like crazy. I can't get the color to match OR the flat finish to match, so it looks like I'll be repainting the entire master bedroom/bathroom, rather than just a quick touch-up.

We are getting new kitchen countertops, refinishing the wood floor on the main level, and replacing the flooring in the master bedroom/bath. I'm telling you, it's been a bit crazy! I'm excited for the end result, though, which I hope to share in the next couple of weeks.

Once we're finished, we'll begin again.

More on that to come!

Birthdays galore.

The day before Evelynn made her appearance, MY baby had a birthday.

She's 16.

SIXTEEN.

I have no pictures from that memorable day.

It was a Sunday.

I was in Utah.

Mar and Bill were in Colorado.

Bill had Bishop duties.

Mar had the biggest piano duet competition EVER.

That night they had a Stake youth fireside to attend.

Sorry, baby.

Our kind neighbors, the Weeds, had Mar and Bill over for a birthday treat late that evening.

Thanks, neighbors!!

I promised a get-together this Saturday (no biggie, just a month late) for her and some friends.
And today I snapped a few of our traditional Mauri birthday pictures:

Love her.

The next day (Evelynn's birthday), Bill took Mar to get her driver's license.

I'm just as excited as she is, I promise.

On January 15th, Bill and Mar were back in UT to see Evie, so we had a little family January birthday celebration at Britt's house.

 Little Billy got some awesome lovin' from Scarlett.

I had purchased a surprise birthday present for Mar (since the guitar she got for Christmas was also to cover for her birthday {expensive}... gotta love having a birthday close to Christmas, am I right?), a dress that her big sis Shi helped pick out. She loved it.

 Lex had made Jason his fave cake (confetti with sprinkles), and I had purchased a cake, so we decked them all out with one candle per person, sang a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday, and let them each make a wish and blow. Seriously, these are the best times (I subconsciously must have stolen that sentiment from Lo's Snapchat post below, as I scrolled down after typing and saw that's exactly what she said haha).

By the 20th we were back in CO, so I made Bill a proper homemade German Chocolate inspired cake. It wasn't without it's hiccups, but it looked pretty good in the end. Mar was at a {boy} friend's house that evening, so Bill and I went to dinner, shopped for a couple pairs of shoes that he desperately needed, then invited Misty and Blair over for some cake and ice cream. A nice, quiet, unassuming birthday, unlike the grand party of last year.

 We don't usually turn off the lights when we light candles, but we decided that apparently the Weeds do, as Misty promptly hit the lights as soon as those candles were blazing. Made for some interesting pictures, though!

I'm a bit of a stickler when it comes to making sure Bill has all the candles on his cake. This year it was 51. I don't know why I get such a kick out of the crazy candle meltdown and all that smoke every year.

So, while we celebrated Evelynn's Birth Day this January, we also celebrated Mauri, Jason, Lynnea, and Bill.

Happy Birthday to all!