Sclemeel, Schlemazel

I just blogged about our bottling over @ ZenaidaCellars.com and included some cool pictures if you wanted to check it out! EO may not let me blog about the biz anymore after this one...

What I Did on My Summer Vacation 2009 Version

Kid covered with Oklahoma BBQ'ed corn on the cob!

Me and the Kids with Papa and Grandma Great Great in OKC.
4 generations.

Cool "splashgrounds" at the parks in OKC - free and right next to the playground. Wish we had those around here, of course they wouldn't be on because our state has no water.





Sweet Children's Museum in OKC. You could take lesson on the Segway.

These are not in chronilogical order because blogger can be very non-user friendly! They are actually in reverse chronological order - I didn't feel like fighting with it.

I don't know about you, but I am wondering, exactly, where this summer has gone. It would seem that in the effort to keep the kids (and myself) busy so we do not go crazy with the lack of a regular schedule, that we keep the days filled with activities that seem to make months fly by. (I need to figure out a way to do that for the fall/harvest months!)

Pyrotechnics and sweet 70's Rock!

*KISS and Gene Simmons in NO way endorse this blog*

But they look awesome in their makeup!

Water slides are the best things ever!

So are pools. Both make for great naptimes!

Me in DC.

Camping - looks like winter, but just early moring!

It wouldn't be camping with out s'mores.

We took the kids camping for their very first time, E and I went to DC for a dear friend's wedding (the woman who introduced us), we took the kids to the fair, took ourselves to see Kiss at the same fair (Oh My Gosh, such a great show, never considered myself a "fan" per se - but I can now see why they are uber-famous - they KICK ASS ON STAGE), took the whole family to Oklahoma City to visit family and have filled the rest of the time with swimming, water slides and trips to the library. Whew. When does school start so I can have a break?

Panic! (Not at the Disco)

A couple of weeks back, the weirdest thing happened, I started spotting. A week before I was "scheduled" to get my period. Weird, right? Didn't think too much about it. The next day I was lying in bed thinking about getting up and was all of a sudden overcome with nausea. So much so, I had to kick my daughter out of my bathroom as she was finishing up and tell her to go wash in her hands in her own bathroom. I didn't end up getting sick, but I had to stand there for a little while until the feeling passed.

I know! I was thinking the same thing.

So, I go to tell my husband that I think I am pregnant. And you know what, he starts laughing at me. You read that right, LAUGHING. Personally, I did not think this was anything to be laughing at. This was what I have been paranoid about for 19 months (the age of my youngest). That I was going to get pregnant again and we would have three children. THREE! Not the two that I had been planning on FOREVER. I knew this would happen, I had been so sure all along that we were only going to have two kids - that THIS is what I would get for being so sure. It was going to all come back and bite me in the ass, as so many other things had done in the past!

Right, so back to the laughing. He was laughing at me because of his vasectomy from almost a year ago. You know, the one where they snip out a section and then cauterize both ends. Really, cauterize, I didn't know about that part. But, BUT! I said, sometimes they grow back together, it has happened before, I am pretty sure I could find a statistic online somewhere! Know what I got with that...more laughing. More laughing and the look, the look of "well what have you been doing that you would go and get yourslef knocked up..." "Yeah, right." I said to "the look". When on the ever-loving-earth would I have the time to have an affair. I mean really.

Needless to say, he talked me down off the ledge and brought me back to reality. I am indeed, not pregnant (whew!) not that we wouldn't have welcomed that baby into our home, but HOLY COW...I was convinced!

Days later, he tells me that his first thought when I told him I thought I was pregnant was "great, now we are going to have to get a mini van!"

Laura Ingles Wilder

Or maybe, Barbara Kingsolver.

Alex, what is, the two people I thinkI might be morphing into?

That is correct, for no money but some homemade cheese and canned tomatoes.

Yes, that's right, I think I have gone over to the other side. I just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and I am inspired.

I spent yesterday gathering the ingredients so that today I could make cheese. The vegetable rennet I actually ordered in advance through my local grocery co-op and the citric acid was easy because EO has that on hand at work.

I just whipped up a batch of homemade mozzarella. Just now. In my kitchen. And it would have been perfect, except that I forgot to salt it at the right time. I was so excited for the stretching that I forgot to salt. But whatever. I made cheese and we are going to eat the cheese! While, I am sure that someone who has done this before could really get it done in 30 minutes, it took me about an hour. I tasted it, and it tastes like cheese! Success. I tried to take some pictures, but I can't find my camera...

Stay tuned for the next episode of life on the farm, I mean in town, when JO convinces her husband that he CAN, in fact, build that do it yourself backyard bread/pizza oven!

Before and After

OK...I guess I was a little too anxious to start my project, as I do not have any proper BEFORE pictures showing the entire area. But those of you who have been here, know what a cramped space the kids and I shared for my office and their community play area. But below are a few pictures to give you an idea of the space and the color before the make over.

This picture is what the area looked like when we bought the house, taken on our inspection day. The large bookcase stayed and we filled it to the brim with photo albums, kids books, files and stuff.

Here you can see my mini desk in the background (behind the beautiful family!). With the printer on it, leaving me not much work space.

And another shot of the "toy closet" and book shelf, my desk chair and the kids table.

So, a brief run down of what I did...

1. Husband left town early Monday morning and I decided to complete a project while he was gone. So the first day I purchased everything I would need: paint and rollers. We like to paint, so we have all the tarps and pans, etc., etc...I am all about instant gratification and painting a room gives it to me!

Prior to him leaving though, I moved the majority of toys out of the "toy closet" and into their bedrooms. The toy explosion fallout seemed to be growing exponentially everyday, so I decided to minimize the fallout by moving ground zero to their rooms. The "toy closet" is now my sewing closet :)

2. Started to do a little bit while the kids napped, moved most of the books outside and started clearing out junk.

3. Put the kids to bed and got to work. The first night I painted the dining room area of the room. I got two coats on and one coat of cutting in. Whew. Time to go bed.

4. The next day I finished clearing off the book shelf while the kiddos were napping. But ran into a problem getting the humongous bookcase out into the back yard. (My plan was to cut this bookcase in half...putting the lower two shelves into SO room and then mounting the top three shelves to the wall above my desk.) Well it was bigger than the door going out to the backyard, so I had to call my dad for help. I thought I was going to have to cut it in half to get it out the door, and was afraid to use the circular saw on our dining room floor - I knew it would not end well. Fortunately my dad was thinking more clearly than I was at the moment and suggested we turn it on to its side. WOW, why didn't I think of that! - and to think I care for two children on a regular basis - scary!

5. Put the kiddos to bed and began the arduous task of priming the other side of the room. I primed because of the backside of the fireplace and the stucco, I wanted to make sure the interior paint I was using would cover up the terra cota color. I got the fireplace covered in the primer and the two coats of black paint on the "work space" walls. Yes, that's right, I said black paint!

6. The next day I dropped my kids at preschool and Papa's house and made the 2.5 hour drive one way to the Palo Alto Ikea to get the items I needed for my project. (Yes, tj and crew, THAT Ikea.) The nice thing about IKEA's website is that it can tell you exactly where in the get-it-yourself-warehouse the items that you want are! So you don't have to waste any time going through the showroom. So, I spent about 45 minutes in Ikea getting my items, checked out and drove 2.5 hours back home. But this night I took off. We went to the beach to spend the night with Gabrielle. It was fun and a nice break from painting until 11pm! And, yes, the next day was as freezing as it looks, but it was still the beach and we were there with friends!

7.Thursday night I cut in with primer around the fireplace and wall area and got the first coat of the off-white paint on.

8. Friday night was a long night...Hubby was coming home late Saturday night, so I had a lot to get done. The final coat on the fireplace and adjacent walls (that fireplace was bitch to paint because the surfaces were all so uneven. But I bought my new favorite paint rollers at OSH, they are sponges that were sliced so that they could get into the grooves. I didn't realize I was buying them at the time, I thought I was just getting the regular thick nap roller. But I am extremely happy with my purchase - they rocked!) Anyway, this night was a late one (1am) but the painting was completed!

9. Saturday morning was the day to assemble all of the Ikea items. I put the two desks together and they looked great. So exciting! Then I got the Billy bookcases together. I decided to stop before mounting anything on the walls. I had to make some changes to my list while in Ikea and now everything didn't fit exactly how I had envisioned. So, I decide to wait for EO and to get his opinion on everything thing else. And, I was exhausted! I could barely lift my arms, so there was no way me and the screwdriver were going to be getting along!

EO got home (finally, no thanks to the storm in Chicago) and was happy with the painting (and more happy that he didn't have to do any of it!) He was maybe a little less happy with the fact that I had decided to save us money (happy about that part!) by reusing the existing bookcase, but to cut it down (less happy because project for him!) But he embraced the vision and we got it done and mounted on the wall this week. Plus SO is VERY happy with her new book shelf in her room. And in full disclosure, I did break the garage door in the process of all of this (because I was stupid!), but fortunately for me it was not as bad as I thought it was and EO fixed in a few minutes. Damn, he is handy! Gotta love a man in a tool belt! (but it had made a really loud BANG, so I thought I was screwed!)

So with out further adieu...the AFTER:

I must say, I could not be happier with how it turned out. Even with two of the walls painted black, the area is so much lighter. EO thought it extremely out of character for me to be painting walls white (I am usually the anti-white), but after three years of not being able to decide what color to paint the room, white was the best I could come up with.

The kids have a bigger table now to sit at so they are not on top of each other. And I love sitting at my desk doing WORK! So it could not have turned out much better! Now all I need is a new chair...

Still Not Done

So, I jumped in with both feet. Into a Do-It-Yourself project. While my husband was on a sales trip for a week. I will post some before and after pictures for you soon (not quite in the after yet, still trying to finish some things up). I will also post the list of everything I did, on my own, without my husband even knowing what I was doing!! I am very happy with the results so far.

But today, I am making dinner for my friend (and fellow poster on this blog, Erin) who just had her second baby girl on Monday. I am making the Chicken and Dumplings from Smitten Kitchen (love her!) and starting on the Cinnamon Rolls from Pioneer Woman. I have checked out the Pioneer Woman occassionally. Lately though, I have been diving deeper into her site and she has a lot of great stuff. I am pretty excited about this recipe because it makes SO MUCH!! Which means there will be plenty for the new family and for this family!

Another New Favorite Website

I am a Do-It-Yourselfer.

Sort of.

I like to find great ideas to do around our house and then I like to give the instructions to my husband and let him Do-It-His-Self!

I was not always this way.

I was extremely independent.

I had my own tool box, and it was not pink (not that there is anything wrong with that.) I could hang my own shelves - correctly. I could fix my car when certain things went wrong (this was probably more out of repitition, but still - I could do it!) When I started my own business, I was the one that had to fix the toilet when unpleasant conditons would arise.
And now, I start out doing the Do-It-Yourself project with my husband, but then it is snack time, and then it is lunch time, and then diapers need to be changed, and then someone falls down, and then it is naptime (yay!) and I can get back to the project, usually just in time for the clean-up.

I hate the clean-up part of a project.

Most of the time, no matter how badly I want a project done, I will wait until he has the time to do it. He has been really busy lately and no time for projects!

But now I am even worse than that. Now if something breaks or requires a screw driver - I wait until he gets home. How lame is that? Part of it is not so lame, because battery replacement usually requires a screwdriver and, well, sometimes I need some peace and quiet. But other than that, pretty lame - especially when I KNOW I can do it.

So, I am taking a cue from Gabrielle over at Cultured Nativity regarding her recent post on PMS (Pre-Mommy Self). She came from a one direction and I am going a totally different one, but still PMS! And on that note, I am going to share an inspiring site for you.

TipNut.com My New Favorite Website.

This website is full of all kinds of stuff. I love it. Want to know how to make your own laundry detergent? I probably won't ever do this, but, hey tell me anyway! Need 12 beauty hacks from your kitchen? Maybe, money's been tight, I may have to start doing double duty on kitchen staples. Need a spring cleaning guide and checklist? Absolutely!

Since I am relatively new to this Homemaker Profession, as a single full-time job. I found the following tips extremely helpful (and nice reminders to keep in mind while going through my busy day!)

From the following article:
http://tipnut.com/rewarding-homemaking/

10 Secrets To Rewarding Homemaking

1. Know: You are a Home Manager, not a slave, martyr or responder to chaos. Each day is a fresh start with new things to accomplish and feel pride for. Even though deep down I know this, sometimes i need to be reminded.

2. Realize: Actively managing your home is one way to nurture your family and their environment. There will be positive reflections: a more harmonious household, a little more eagerness attending to household chores, more appreciation and gratitude. I have started to clue into this recently and I think this is compelling me to put a little more effort onto my job.

3. Be Proactive: It’s easy to get sucked into despair (and resentment) when your home is in constant shambles. Keep on top of things daily if possible and work in chunks of time on busy days. Again, recently started to notice this too - I feel less exhausted and more inspired if the house is in order.

4. Establish Routines: Remember Mondays for laundry, Tuesdays for Ironing, Thursdays for Shopping, etc.? Routines work and work well! Schedule household routines that will serve your household best. This I need to do. Not the ironing part, but being on top of things a little better. I work well with deadlines and a schedule - so maybe I won't hate laundry so much if I spread it out over the week. Sounds promising, we'll see if that works out.

5. Clean As You Go: Pick up and clean as you go, this makes less “piles” of work waiting to be done. Again, something I need to work on and feel as if I am getting better at. But I am a procrastinator at heart.

6. Appreciate: The shabbiest of homes can be more comfortable and welcoming than gilded show homes. Neat, clean & harmony will always shine bright–appreciate your home and what it has to offer. This is my ultimate goal.

7. Daily Treat: Each day do an unexpected nice thing for someone in the home (like having coffee ready in the morning or make a favorite dessert) or add a lovely puttery treat to your home. Hmmm, I am good at the cooking favorite dinners and special treats, but I really like that my husband makes coffee every morning.

8. Delegate: Three people each doing a ten minute cleaning chunk accomplishes 30 minutes of cleaning in 10 easy minutes, good managers are good delegators. Choosing tasks that compliment a person’s ability as well as personality and preference will go a long way. I am looking forward to this! SO, the 4 year-old has become very helpful in her ripe-old age so I am starting to utilze her helpfulness to my advantage...putting away her laundry (we are still working on the folding), picking up her toys, taking her plate to the counter, etc..

9. Entertain Regularly: Years ago women would hold weekly bridge parties and afternoon teas. Socializing was looked forward to and friendships flourished, but you also made darn sure the house was presentable. This is a great technique to regularly “force” a well-kept home. You could entertain a few friends for an afternoon tea, a weekend bbq, or have family visit for a few days. My husband and I learned a long time ago that this worked well for us. Our yearly barbeque is yearly catalist for getting at least one of our major outdoor projects done each year!

10. Be Kind: Gruff, impatient, bitter, biting words and attitude will undo and damage all that you accomplished with the above. Enjoy serving your family, your home and yourself–your job as a home manager will be more rewarding and successful. Always a nice reminder - one that I need from time to time.

Working On

Just wanted to show you what we have been working on lately, the hubby and I. Check out the before and after pics on the Zenaida blog.

Backwards, Forwards and Epiphanies

Here's to 2009!
2008 was what I like I call to call our "Year of Adjustment." I settled in to, more or less, being a stay at home mom after having my second child at the end of 2007 and selling the business that I spent 8 years growing into a successsful company. That part was great. More time to spend on family things, without stressing out how to squeeze them into my busy work schedule. I embarked on a healthy cooking regiment that included a basket of fresh, organic and locally grown produce that I would (and still do) pick up every other Tuesday. I became excited at the new possibilities for dinner entrees. I would get my list and begin searching online recipe websites for what to make using the interesting assortment of vegetables filling up my vegetable drawer. Vegetables that I would NEVER pick out on my own have become staples in our house. Fortunately my children are great eaters!
I discovered that I have a hobby. My grandmother and mom taught me how to sew when I was a kid and I had played around in the last few years sewing baby blankets for friends and family members. But this year, I went a little crazy. I sewed clothes for my daughter, new pillow covers for my couch, reusable shopping bags, a million sets of reversible napkins, insulated lunch bags for my neice and nephew for Christmas...I am sure there are a few more things that I whipped together and just can't remember right now. I didn't realize I had a hobby until a friend of mine pointed it out to me. Sewing is my hobby and EO decide to encourage the hobby by purchasing a sweet new sewing machine for me for Christmas...it is super fancy and high quality...I am looking forward to working on it!
While this sounds all rosey and happy, there was one thing that did make the "Year of Adjustment" a bit of a challenge. I no longer had a "job." Which meant that I no longer had "my own money." I still get "paid" through our other business, but it is just enough to cover household expenses, barely. EO had to adjust in order to be able to pay me a salary plus cover all of my regular monthly expenses (car payment, insurance, etc.) So there was a lot of adjusting all around and this was probably the hardest part of the whole year. EO and I have always kept everything seperate money wise because we each had our own business. So combining money and having to discuss larger purchases before hand was something very difficult for me, it still is. I think what it comes down to is freedom, and there are times when I feel I have none, financially speaking! We are getting better at it and getting used to working together and I am hoping that things will be easier this year.
This year I am hoping to make our house work for us, which means complete and total organization. We have been space and storaged challenged in our little 1950's ranch house. But, we are going to be here for at least another 5 years, so we may as well as get comfortable. We are already on our way. I purchased a wardrobe from IKEA and EO installed it in our bedroom. It looks great, fits in our room perfectly and has tripled the storage space in our tiny bedroom. EO and I now have all of our clothes in our room...novel concept...I am very excited. Now we are one step closer to being able to eliminate the micro-closet that our room was built with and add that space to the micro-bathroom that we are currently working with. Depending on what we get to there will be before and after photos (someday).
My epiphany came while putting away the Christmas toys. My children and I are currently sharing the 10'x7' "area" in our house. I have a mini desk shoved in corner on one wall, we share a bookcase that came with our house and they have the rest of the space. We are crammed to say the least. I was not ever really sure how to make it work better for all of us. BUT I HAVE FIGURED IT OUT! I was so excited that in the middle of putting away all of the toys I had to sit down and DRAW A PICTURE of what my plan was. I have planned, measured and made my shopping list! Now all I need to do is to come up with the $640.00 necessary to put my plan in motion...refer to above paragraph!

My Barbie Dream House

So about 2 years ago my husband and I were (thankfully!) coming to the end of a nine month search for a new house. Long story short, we had sold our first house and did not have a new one to go to. We rented a house in, what I did not realize at the time, was the ghetto! Again with the short story...people carrying guns around nonchalantly outside, prostitutes propositioning my husband in our driveway, tenants leaving their homes in the middle of the night...all of these things happened, I am not even slightly exaggerating. All of this with a one year old in the house. THE-LONGEST-NINE-MONTHS-OF-MY-LIFE. Yes, longer than being preggo. So, right before we found (and purchased) the house we currently own, we came upon what I like to call "My 1970's Mansion" (aka My Barbie Dream House).


It was a spectacular mid-century modern home. Architecturally interesting with a pool and a WHOLE LOTTA POTENTIAL. And by potential, I mean a whole lotta work. We made an offer that was (thankfully) not accepted because I would have to still be working in order to pay my share of the mortgage that I happily agreed to pay in order to call this atomic ranch my own! As far as the work, I figure "No Problem." The hubby is handy and I am no slouch myself. We could get this done! Well, back to the part of our offer not being accepted. So we moved on, put an offer in our wonderful home and it was accepted. Of course while we were in escrow, we saw that the Barbie Dream house was re-listed at THE PRICE WE HAD OFFERED! Maddening, but we were in escrow by then, happy with our choice and my husband was not about to lose our substantial deposit on the house. So...moving on.

The 1970's Mansion was sold and we were happy in our new house, only wondering every once in awhile if the new owners were doing any of the fabulous things we had planned to do with the property. And then it went into foreclosure. I found it two nights ago on the internet - for $200,000.00 less than what we had originally offered!...(why was I looking a real estate online, you ask? Because I am obsessed with it. If I had the cash flow to support a couple of mortgages and pay construction crews I would be like that crazy Jeff Lewis guy on Flipping Out, except for the crazy coffee temperature thing - LOVE HIM!) And God bless my husband, when I showed him the treasure I had found on the interweb...he didn't call me crazy, he didn't say NO!, he jumped right on my Barbie Dream House bandwagon and we started to come up with ways to get out of our house without losing any money and remodeling My (ahem, I mean OUR) 1970's Mansion in our heads.

So to answer your questions, no the owners did not do anything fabulous to the house. Yes, calls have been made to the realtor - who I know has missed us the last two years. Yes, calls and emails have been sent to people who may or may not be interested in buying our house. Yes, calls have been made to the mortgage guy to see what we can do in light of the new difficulties placed on those of us who are self-employed and try to get a mortgage. And with all of the turmoil and roller-coasted riding in this thing we call life, we can't complain because the hubby and I DO-IT-TO-OURSELVES!

We made a list last night of everything that would eventually need to be done to the house...it is extensive. We prioritized:

1. what would have to be done right away (a.k.a. the SHORT list)
2. what we would just have to live with for awhile (a.k.a. the LONG list)

More to come on the possible uprooting of the O family from comfortableness to living in a construction zone...and if you know anyone who might want to buy a pretty cool house with a great backyard...send them my way :).

A Few Random Thoughts I Will Attempt To Put Together under "Good Friends Kick Ass"

Last night was our turn to host the BBQ in our round-robin-tournament of Summer BBQ's. This year we teamed up with another couple that lives in a different town to host at our house. I have to say that TEAMWORK rocks!! It was the least stressful social gathering at our house EVER. Not that hosting the bbq's are stressful, but there is a fair amount of work that goes into it, more so now that we all have multiple children to deal with at the same time (another shout out to the GP's who stood guard over our kids last night - another reason so less stressful!) But the tables were set-up far in advance, the burger patties were made up far in advance, the beverages were iced far in advance, the condiments prepared long before the first guests arrived. My, I felt organized! It was so nice having HollyM here to help out. She even unloaded my dishwasher! I am feeling a little guilty that she may have done a little more work than I did. I highly suggest that everyone double-up for their bbq's, it was quite a lovely evening (To AK, we also had about half the amount of people that you had yours, you are far more popular than we are!) HollyM and I will be teaming up next summer as well, even if we do all decide to make to trek over the hill!



And to VH, just so you know, I am going to make out with you when you get home from your fabulous vacation. My house is cleaner than it has ever been...EVER. I wanted to hug Alex before she left I was so excited. So really, I owe you drinks or coffee or little somethin' somethin' when you get back because I am stoked on my nice clean house - thank you for going to all the trouble you did to find her number.

A little more on the backyard...my husband kicked some more backyard booty this weekend. He braved the MILLION degree temperatures to build this fabulous-ness for us, or more acurately for little miss S...to think that I actually thought this would be for me...where was my head!

Well, I guess it doesn't matter who it "belongs to" what matters most is that now we have some shade around the pool and soon we will have a little wall to screen us from the impending doom of the "neighbors" to come.

Semi-Retired

So, I am semi-retired. I worked the last couple of days prepping for the wedding I am helping with tomorrow. Needless to say, I am a little wiped out. So, the hubby was holding the infant who was being pretty fussy. I go and get the pacifier and walk over in my fog to put it in his mouth (the infant), but I seriously tried to put it in my husband's mouth. I am sure you can imagine the look on my husband's face. SORRY, I am tired! He told me I had to put this on the blog because he thinks I am crazy!