Deck and mancave (pics)

So now the deck is done!
1. Helping Daddy 2. I hold it and John attaches it 3. I got you some screws Daddy
4. Always wear your seatbelt, he fell out right after this picture 5. Ben giving Little John a ride (Ben doesn't need that wheelchair he got it at a yard sale to play with) 6. They're under the trampoline, and yeah he fell over doing that 7. Enjoying the new deck


So here is the grand tour of the mancave!
1. & 2. You go down the library hallway to get there (we have 5 bookcases in there)
3. The view from the door 4. The shelves we built him for his birthday, anchored to the wall and painted, he's started to put stuff on them 5. This is to give you some perspective, the shelves are taller than me 6. He puts his laptop on the shelf and sits in the banana chair (the arrow shows which shelf in the big picture)


And of course its all decorated!
1. This curtain hides the stuff we'll store back here 2. This is the beautiful marblized finish I gave his floor, it took a month of washing to get all the paint off my feet (it stuck like nail polish, but I was out of remover) 3. This beautiful rug keeps John's toes warm, his Dad brought it back from the first Desert Storm 4. I made him a lampshade 5. It makes neat patterns on the wall when it's on 6. The switch plate is covered in tinfoil and John painted this picture himself 2 years ago

The silver lining

So now that I've depressed everyone with our sickness (and possibly shared the germs), here's the silver lining. While being cooped up, those who were feeling up to it have done a lot of good work.
We put together, anchored to the wall, sanded, painted, and painted again the shelves for John's man cave. I made and hung a curtain to hide stuff stored at the back in the space to small to use as part of the man cave.
We dug, moved, and fertilized the garden boxes (the dirt here is such junk we use the square foot gardening method (mostly)). We planted peas, lettuce, and blueberries (although the weather may have killed one of the blueberries). We transplanted the raspberries. We seeded the bare spots in the lawn and spread peat moss to keep it moist. And even though the one blueberry may be toast all the wet/snowy weather means I haven't had to water the grass seed.
After being cooped up the old furniture arrangement was definitely old so we changed it up and it's much more cozy and conducive to conversation (but everyone can still see the TV, so we're all happy).
And John's had the chance to give lots of blessings. I love that we have such convenient access to the priesthood. And I always feel so comforted, even just listening to someone else's blessing. John says he makes better decisions than he might otherwise, because he knows I'll ask for a blessing and he wants to be worthy to give them. I think that is so awesome.

Hobos and doctors and laughs oh my!

So I'm going to smash a lot of stuff in this blog, since my sister was home from collage last week for spring break.

I almost had a shower with a hobo! I was running the water to get warm and this giant hairball gets floated up to the other end of the tub AND THEN IT UNCURLED A BUNCH OF LEGS! And it was a hobo and it was big and John wasn't home so I had to smash it myself. It still freaks me out to think I could have gotten in and been bit 'cuz I never would have even seen it 'cuz I don't wear my glasses in the shower.

So I'm not sure if you're familiar with the "man cave" so I'll explain it a bit. It's a guy's personal space for working or playing and stashing or displaying things like comic book collections or high school ball trophies. They tend to be smaller than bigger unless most of the kids are grown and gone. Well for John's birthday he is redoing the closet under the stairs for his man cave. Before you freak out, he picked the space and is very happy with it, even though it makes me think of Harry Potter. He painted it silver and I did the floor a marblized blue and green finish and we're going to give it several clear coats to protect it. I designed and built him a set of shelves (with lots of building help from everyone) as a suprise and after we get it all finished I'll post pics.

Sarah had her wisdom teeth out. It went well, very little swelling, and no need for the heavy pain pills.

All the stores are having seasonal clearance to make way for the spring clothes, so Sarah and I did lots of shopping. I did really well with my budget though and didn't go overboard. I got some way cute stuff but only if it was cheap.

Now that our insurace has kicked in I found a new pediatrician for Little John. He's great, he used to be head of peds at a big hospitals but went back to private practice because he likes it better. So poor Little John got all caught up on his shots and he's been under the weather since and pretty cranky.

5 out of 6 Hizers are born in March so we had the everybody birthday party this last weekend. It was lots of fun. We took advantage of the nice weather and BBQed until the wind drove us inside.

Sarah's ride back to college was in Salt Lake so Ben and I drove her down there for the rondevouz. We had to hang out there for a bit so I helped Sarah reveiw her anatomy flash cards. She's working on muscles right now. I was asking a lot of "identify the muscle that originates at... and inserts at... and does such and such" questions and while she'd think about it Ben would make random guesses. So Ben's last five guesses had been "your rump?" when the question "what is the insertion of the gluteous maximus" came up and I was waiting to tell him he'd guessed right when he said it again. But instead he says, with this funny look on his face, "Its called sex, and you should never, ever do it!" And his face goes all red. Sarah and I luaghed ourselves silly! And when we finally stop laughing he says "So what's a gluteus maximus anyway?" He had no idea it was a butt and we started laughing all over again.

I went to the chiropracter today (my first appointment was last week) and he worked out the whatever I did to my shoulder over the weekend. My mom talked me into going after my shoulder had been bothering me for a few weeks. I was kinda resistant to the idea, because some of those guys are quacks. But I googled the one my insurance said it covered in our area and picked the guy who did mostly sports injury stuff because he seemed very unquacky (so does his office partner). And he was very professional and none of this "I'll need to see you 3 times a week for 6 months ot fix it" stuff and no wonky promises like "I'll cure your athletes foot by feeling you skull". The day after I was pretty sore but overall much better. He also worked on my neck and lower back. He says I carry all my tension in my neck and shoulders and I didn't realize it until I felt so much better afterwards. My back hasn't felt right since I was pregnant (which he says is really common) and it feels tons better now. So now I'm sold on chiropracters. I know a bunch of you have raved over how much good your's has done you but I had to try it to belive it.

So that catches us up to right this very second, so now I need to go do stuff to blog about.

We play, Wii fit, they work

So it's been a bit busy around here since my last post. Everybody went back to work and school and its just me and Little John and the dog at home. And he keeps me pretty busy! The last time I was on my own with him all day he had only started to crawl, now he runs! I wasn't quite prepared for the difference that would be :D
Now that you more experienced Moms have stopped laughing, I will continue :) He may be more work to keep up with but he is also so much fun! We play cars and Little People and jump on the bed a run around and clapping games and sing. We snuggle on the couch with his blanket and bottle and watch a show. (BTW I'm asking for tips to get from bottle to sippy, please) And he like to play by himself a bit more now, so I like to do email or knitting while he's busy 'cuz its something I can stop right away if he needs me.
And then when he gets tired I put him down for a nap and have anywhere from 1 to 2.5 hours to myself! I love this time of day, I selfishly keep it all to myself- no housework! (ok I clear up the living room so I can feel comfy, but nothing else!) We (as in anyone living in our house) got a Wii fit for Christmas. I love it! It tracks stuff, helps set goals, the games are great, and it gives you your BMI in addition to your wieght (which is the number that means more) I started using it Monday and have used it everyday for 30-45 minutes. My goal is to use it every weekday, during nap time since no one is around to see. The rest of nap time I like to read my book, but I decided at least once aweek I should blog instead (hence this blog).
John loves his job, he's already ahead on some project they thought would take longer. But the commute... Well the commute is fine if the weather is. Monday it was not, and it took him like 3.5 hours to get home! And I tell you I don't enjoy the worry that causes. But now that the weather is good he loves the drive, mostly because we get him books on CD from the library.
So I fibbed a little there has been another person here all week (drumroll...) the carpet guy! Yes its true, at long last we have some carpet downstairs! He's not done with everything but hopefully by dinner Friday(tomarrow)... He didn't think it would take this long but he couldn't nail down the tack strips (concrete, duh!) like he thought he'd be able to, so he had to glue. And that nasty smelly stuff takes a while to dry. (Due to the smell we're camped out up stairs in Sarah's room since she's at school. Little John is in the porta-crib in Mom's room) And rather than haul everything up the stairs and then back down, we're playing musical chairs with it. We smashed it in the storage spaces and the bedrooms so he could work on the living room and halls. Now that the living room is done we've smashed it all in there. (Actually the living room is a good size so it isn't smashed much at all) Thank goodness for the Young Men, it took us all weekend to condense into the bedrooms. We moved the light things into the living room and then the deacons moved everything else in 15 minutes. It deffinately would have taken us longer, especially since John is kinda tired when he gets home from work (not suprising). Hopefully the carpet gets finished so we can use the weekend to put life back to normal downstairs.
I drew up a sketch of how I want the furniture to go. It worked the way it was before but somethings (like my craft table) need rearranged so I can keep a better eye on Little John since no one else is aound during the day. I think that after bedrooms my crafts will be the first thing set up, because I'm editing some bridesmaids dresses for a wedding on the 31 (as in January). They got the dresses at the after Christmas sales so they were half off, but they're half gone too. Ok maybe not half that makes them sound like floozy dresses, they're black full length, but sleeveless/strapless. So I'm adding sleeves and some pretty red sheer sparkly stuff, but with all my machines and supplies packed up so we can get the carpet I haven't had much chance to work on them. Plus when that's done I'm going to get my Etsy shop up and running. This is why nap time is all mine, the rest of the time I'm busy.

Christmas is coming!

So I've gotten behind again. But its for a great reason. Santa's workshop has reopened in our basement. I believe in a homemade Christmas. I have lots of reasons and since my blog can be my soap box, I'm going to share them with you.
1 It's often more bugdet friendly (which really matters right now!)
2 If you're going to spend that much time/effort you're going to make something that person really wants, instead of getting just "something"
3 While you're working on the gift you're generally thinking about the person it's for and how much they'll like it
4 There's a lot less going out in the crazed crowds of shoppers
5 You're usually working in your comfy home where you can play Christmas music/movies and really get into the feeling of the season
6 Everybody can work together on same/different projects (providing it doesn't spoil any suprises) and get in some extra family togetherness
7 Kids rarely have money to go shopping and grandma really would rather have the fingerpaint picture than whatever they can get at the dollar store with thier small allowance or the thing you picked and put the kids name on
8 I love getting homemade things,
9 I just love having a project to work on!
10 It get us away from all the comercialism and back to the real meaning of Christmas.
11 It spares other people from the obnoxious talking/beeping/musical toys I could have bought

My own private zoo

So on Monday I walked past a window in the basement and discovered that I had been transported to my own private zoo exhibit. There was a little fat mouse scurrying around in there! Of course since our lot backs up to a field its not too big a suprise. The good news is that he was a fat little mouse with a healthy coat (like you'd see on a well groomed houstcat) so I doubt he was diseased. The better news was that when I came by a few hours later he was gone. :D

Hizer Castle

So we built Little John the most fun cardboard box castle since we have all these empty cardboard boxes as we unpack. He loves it! He loves being chased in and out by us and the dog. He loves hiding in the turret and peaking out the windows. He loves playing peakaboo from the watch towers. And he loves to knock over the entry way arch. And we had a ton of fun reliving our childhoods building and desinging it. He likes it so much we're thinking of adding a west wing or a hippo stable when we get a few more boxes.

I jinxed myself

Yesterday I said about how the baby has been sleeping through the night so much lately and so I must have jinxed myself because he woke up last night around 1 am and around 3 we stopped trying to get him back to sleep and John dozed while Little John played in the living room for another hour. But on the bright side we went back to bed after family scriptures (7 am so Mom and Ben can get to school) and he slept till 9:30 and so did we.

Oh and the plumbers came and the bathroom works great!!

All last week in just 5 minutes

Sorry its been a while sinceI blogged anything. We were very busy last week with the fair and getting ready for school which started yesterday. So I'll catch everyone up.



We've been doing a lot of cleaning to get ready for school. Ben paid us $20 to clean his room for him. Look at all the laundry we hauled out of there! But he is doing a pretty good job of keeping it clean since then.



We entered all our stuff in the fair: our quilt got a red ribbon (2nd place), everything else got blue (1st place), and the wedding dress I made last year got a blue and a great big pretty yellow one for honorable mention and it gets to go on to the State fair! I'm very excited about that.



We get a lot of calls from Sarah at college, things are going well but she's homesick. It doesn't help that she has a hard time getting cell phone reception and that her laptop freaked out and wouldn't connect to the internet. But she got it fixed now and she's going to be home for labor day weekend. So we are very excited to see her soon.



So the company that John interviewed with decided they aren't going to hire anyone after all. So that's a little disapointing, but he has more applications out and we expect to here back with a few interviews soon. In the mean time he's keeping himself busy cleaning out the garage and beating Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn on the Wii.



Little John is having a great time. Him and the dog are good friends now. He likes to share his cookies with her. He'll slobber all over it and chew on it some and then hold it for her to chew on. But if he has a snack he doesn't want to share he has no problem with pushing her out of the way. We walked around the fair and he got to pet a cow. And because we went Friday morning it was pretty uncrowded so we let him out of the stroller and he and John both pushed it around. He is so close to walking on his own! He'll walk holding just one hand now, he walks along the furniture, he walks up and down stairs with help, he practically runs with his push toy. We made pudding art this week to mail to Sarah at school and to other people. He sleeps through the night almost everynight now, which we are super excited about. He is just loving life, its great.



Oh and the best news the plumbers come tomarrow and then we'll be able to use the downstairs bathroom- HOORAY!!!

Oh and I added the pictures we took of droping Sarah off at school, to the blog about it.