Craziness!

RiverHeights Master Bedroom
Messina Meadows Kitchen
Paramount Great Room

The past 3 weeks have been crazy! The Ada County Parade of Homes starts this Saturday, May 1st, and I decorated 3 homes. I did one per week over the past 3 weeks. I am exhausted! I also spec'd the interiors on 3 more--tile, carpet, paint, wallpaper, cabinetry, lighting, etc.
It's been fun. If you want to check out some of the pictures I took, go to my other blog www.interiorsredefined.blogspot.com to see them--link in on my sidebar. Or, even better go see them in person. The Parade is free this year.

10 things that make me smile

Today's 10 on Tuesday:

1. The sight of my children sleeping peacefully.
2. The accomplishments and successes (big or small) of my children.
3. A clean house.
4. Good humor.
5. Chloe singing and dancing and the way she tries to vibrato her voice and do back arches.
6. Larry playing ball with the boys.
7. Summer drives through the canyon with the windows rolled down and good music cranked.
8. Skiing down a powdery slope.
Hearing the following:
9. "Mom, thanks."
10. " I love you."

Top 10 Vacation Destinations

10 on Tuesday--in no particular order.
1. SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA 2. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

3. FLORIDA (ORLANDO, GULF COAST, KEY WEST)

family in Orlando

Larry & Boys in Dr. Sweeney's machine

white sand & crystal blue waters in Key West

4. MAUI, HAWAII

5. WASHINGTON D.C.

6. OLYMPIC PENINSULA, WASHINGTON

7. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

8. AMISH COUNTRY, PENNSYLVANIA

9. NYC, NEW YORK

10. SAN DIEGO/CORONADO ISLAND, CALIFORNIA

Since I have only been stateside (except Tijuana), my list is limited to my experience in the U.S. However, I am sure that when I get the opportunity to travel abroad this list will change some. That said, we sure do have a beautiful, diverse country and I look forward to adding more stateside destinations to my list of faves.

A slice of life

Since I keep my blog as my journal, I decided to write a little bit about how hectic life is as of late. Here is a little of the weekly schedule:
4 pm Corb & Caleb get home from school
4:30 pick Chase up from Basketball practice
5:00 pick Carter up from Track practice
5:30 drop Chase off at football practice-have Caleb ready for Laura to take to football practice with Jayden (thanks a million, Laura. You are truly a lifesaver).
5:45 drop Corbin off at football practice
7:00 take Carter to basketball practice
7:30 pick Corbin up at football practice
7:30ish pick Chase up from football practice
8:30 pick Carter up from basketball practice

This is just the practice schedule. During the week throw in a track meet, a basketball game, scouts, Young Mens. Take into consideration dinner and homework and a husband who is a crop sprayer elsewhere, and you will see why my car looks like a garbage dump and smells like a locker room.

This Saturday:
8:30 Caleb's football game starts--be there 30 minutes early to 'warm' up. Thank heavens Larry is here to take him to that.
9:30 Have Chase to a community 20 miles away for his football game--oh and have him with blue socks in order to play. Something we weren't able to find anywhere the night before.
9:45 Carter's basketball game starts. Drop him off. Go look for socks. Find them. Run them back to Chase so he can play.
11:00 Corbin's football game starts. Sorry Coach, he's not making it to warm ups.
12:30 Take lunch to Carter. Thank you concession stand hot dogs.
1:00 Meet up with Larry who was able to stay and watch Chase's entire game. I watched Corbin's.
2:00 Head out together to watch Carter's 2nd basketball game.
4:00 Finally finished for the day. Go get pizza.
6:30 Say bye bye to the crop sprayer for the week. Load the washing machine.

Here are the picture highlights:

Chloe always provides great sideline entertainment. Here she is doing an interpretive dance to "We Will Rock You".

Chase is going in for the tackle.

And he gets it. No TD for you, buddy. Don't those blue socks look sharp?

My 10 Favorite Ethnic Foods

Today's 10 on Tuesday:
1. Pizza Neopolitan 2. Coconut Ice Cream

3. Baklava

4. Enchiladas

5. Croissants

6. Chips and Mango Salsa

7. Eggplant Parmesan

8. Beef Stroganoff

9. Coconut Curry

10. Pad Thai

What do I notice that these all seem to have in common? Off the charts in fat grams and calories. Nice. They sure do taste yummy, though.

Easter and Spring Break

For Spring Break this year we headed to Utah. Larry and the kids met up with Dave and Gavyn on Monday night and attended a Jazz game. They absolutely loved it! Unfortunately, the weather for the week wasn't very warm so we spent a lot of time indoors at Grandma and Grandpa's playing video games, with cousins, and heading to the church gym for basketball. Larry, Caleb and Carter went golfing on the first (and only) warmish day with Larry's dad. It was a nice week and we really enjoyed the time with family.

This is a paper Caleb brought home from school where he was apparently assigned to summarize his Spring Break.

Do you get the impression Carter feels like he has 'outgrown' this photo op?

Caleb was able to spend a lot of time with Gavyn and loved every minute of their interaction.

Carter collects his payoff for being in the cousins picture.

Chloe models her Easter attire.

The kids enjoy cousin time together.

Laura and Haley pulled out the nail polish box and we had fun giving Hazel and Chloe manicures.

This was Chloes first time having her nails painted and she was in heaven.

10 words people would use to describe me

10 on Tuesday
Here's my list:
1. independent (not in the political sense)

2. opinionated
3. witty
4. creative
5. artistic
6. sarcastic
7. compassionate
8. perfectionist
9. busy
10. organized

Here's the list from my kids and husband (I was curious as to what they would say):
1. loyal (Corbin)
2. pretty (Caleb)
3. nice (Caleb)
4. helpful (Corbin)
5. happy (Corbin)
6. busy (Caleb)
7. weird (Carter)
8. not punctual (Carter)
9. beautiful (Larry)
10. creative (Larry)

I think this is reflective of their ages. Carter's crack me up. It is always humbling to ask your teenager words to describe you. I should have known better. Chase was asleep on the couch sick with the stomach flu when I asked them, so he was unable to give an answer.