Playing Pool or ELSE!

Joey, Justin and Andy decided they NEEDED to play pool NOW! It was nearly midnight, there was no light on the back porch and there were boxes and junk all over the place, making it impossible to shoot. Not to mention the table was covered in dust and the pool cues in need of repair.

One trip to Meijers and they had the repair tools and Andy and Joe went to work on that issue. Now I have been begging them to clean up the porch for weeks. It is amazing how fast it got cleaned! I will say that Justin did the majority of it, since Andy can't use his right arm very well right now and Joey was busy "rigging" the lighting. It was absolutely ingenius how he rigged the ghetto lighting.

The living room is now officially missing a standing lamp and we have a brand new piece of decor on the porch. It is TIED to the ceiling rafters and works quite well. See pictures!

What a Weekend!

This was a very busy weekend at the Nuthouse. Meijers had a paint sale and I wasn't going to miss out, since the whole house needed painting. I headed home with 4 gallons of ceiling paint on the first trip. There was method to my madness! If I got Joey started on the ceilings, which is the worst part, then he was bound to get it on the walls and would have to continue. It worked!

Joe came in and didn't wait to be asked. He promptly changed into his jeans and got a roller. Soon I had a full scale paint crew. The kids were helping to pack everything up, the little ones begging to paint and I was a great supervisor. As you can see from the pictures, Alexis and Catie both got to paint with Joey's assistance.

Watching Joey on the extension ladder, painting the BIG wall in the living room, which is about 3 stories high was fun all weekend. That would be fun, EXCEPT for all the complaining. He HATES that wall!

I had first started with a deep orange/melon ??? color and a green accent. Now that is SO not me....I am definitely a "blue" person. I change things a lot, but always end up back to using blue, just about everywhere. Well, before the paint hit the wall, I headed back to Meijers and came home with......BLUE! I added not one, not two, but THREE accent colors between the living room and dining area. I will either return the "Halloween" colors or some bathroom in the house will end up looking pretty wierd eventually.

The painting went on from Friday afternoon through Saturday about 11pm. It was not finished, but everyone had sore muscles and Sunday was Mother's Day. We all groaned and moaned, but made it to church almost on time. There was no way to make it through all the talk of mothers and children without some tears, but I kind of knew that was going to happen. Catie was anxious to head off to the cemetery with her bouquet for her Mom. In honor of Mother's Day, she took Frankie with her and they also planted some flowers. Catie did well and I was proud of her.

The girls and I went outside to pick Lilacs in remembrance of my Mom. They were her favorites and thanks to Joe, I have a bush that blooms every spring, just in time to pick a bouquet for my Mom. Catie and I had a talk about missing our Moms and I hope my example of remembering mine with fondness today helped.

Laura came to visit and brought me a book titled "Welcome to the Funny Farm". Could it be more appropriate?