Snow Bunnies Day 2

Our second day in Galena I decided to spend some time with the girls.  The boys got dressed and headed out to the slopes.  Aren't they cute together.  (especially with those expressions)

Annie, Maggie and I headed in town where there are a ton of cute little shops.  Our favorite was of course the chocolate shop. They had these ridiculously huge strawberries covered with all kinds of chocolate.  It was awesome!

We did this all morning.  Really, the shops were that cute.  

We met the boys later on and went out for a nice dinner at a greek restaurant.  We got some crazy flaming cheese dish.  Delicious.

Zac was happier with his steak

The boys and I went out that evening for a late ski session.  It was great.  Here's a few of pics, me and the brothers. 

Me and my dear boy

It was a good night.  We crashed pretty hard that evening and slept in the next day.  Zac and I drove home as Maggie and Kylie were exhausted still.  Maggie even went so far as to do this to her head.

She is ridiculous, but at least it was dark for her.

I know this was not the most interesting of blog posts, but I've been very preoccupied recently.  I have a million things to do and it seems so little time to actually get it done.  As I'm feeling unmotivated, tell me, what do you want to hear about.

Snow Bunnies Day 1

I know I've mentioned before that I love to travel.  I figured, since the boys may be going again this Sunday, maybe I'd start with the family ski trip.  Last February, about this time, Annie and Jade went to Galena.  They asked Zac, Kylie, Maggie and me if we would like to go, and of course we did.  Zac had been skiing many times before, but Annie, Mag, Kylie and I hadn't.  Annie predicted that Jade would love every minute of it and want to be on the slopes from dawn til dusk, and she would not.  This was really a win-win situation for us.  If we all came, Maggie, who'd recently told everyone she was pregnant, could go to the spa and shopping with Annie, Kylie and I would be the bad beginners, and Zac and Jade could race each other on the black diamonds.  And that's exactly what happened.  Kylie and I were bad....very bad, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

 Zac and I drove from St. Louis to meet Mag and Kylie, then we headed up north together.  This is the start of the journey

We got to Galena and decided, first things first, we have to prep for the slopes and get lunch.  We were definately looking hot!! Jade and Annie had already been out (and Annie was ready to be done), so Mag was the only one who didn't have marshmallow-man ski pant legs (those came around month 9 for her hahaha, those ankles Gig, too funny) and a dozen layers. 

After lunch we headed to get our ski boots and poles.  I was hoping Zac would tell me exactly what I needed and in what sizes.  Turns out, having skied lots doesn't mean he'd ever paid attention.  He was zero help, but we got it figured out.  Here is Kylie, gearin up!

(love that hat brother)

Zac and I got a quick pic together before things got crazy.

From here we went to try our first slope.  Zac and Jade were there to instuct us. 

Here's Kylie, getting ready for his first journey downhill (about 1 minute before we both wiped out hard)

For some reason Kylie and I decided we didn't need ski lessons, we'd figure it out.  Zac and Jade were there, they'd teach us.  Wrong.  Jade and Zac followed us down the bunny hill twice, laughed when we fell and tried to help us up, then they left telling us "you guys are doin great, you'll be good on your own."  We were not good, we were very bad, but it was a lot of fun.  Kylie cracks me up to begin with, let alone when he tries "sweet jumps" and "grindin rails."  I was in hysterics at him.  We did this for a few hours, were exhausted, but Kylie remained victorious!

We took a quick break for a drink then met up with Zac and Jade to try one of the bigger hills which we were vastly unprepared for.  It started steep and leveled off with a curve, then steep, flat, steep, and flat again to the lift.  The plan was to meet at the curve then start down together.  I failed.  I got to the curve, Zac and Jade were waiting and Kylie had started off again.  I blew past Zac and Jade, then watched Kylie trash out hard and yelled back that he was ok as I continued at mach 3 down the hill.  I ended up throwning myself down, which was appropriate, as I'd gotten so close to the edge of the hill, that one ski was dangling over.  The boys were SHOCKED!  Jade showed up first wide eyed, laughing, asking why I didn't slow down.  I told him Zac's "pizza then french fry" rule didn't work and that I couldn't slow myself.  I'd been digging in my poles to no avail.  The other two eventually made it down the hill and both Kylie and I agreed, that was enough of that hill.  We went back to the bunny slopes.

and once again, were able to conquer it. 

Shortly after this, we wandered inside and off to dinner at a delicious pizza place.

We went back out later that night, but I don't think I took any more pictures.  We only skied a couple hours, then we crashed hard and woke up the next day ready for some more sweet snow action!

And the winner is....

Best Buy.
And I'm sad about it.
But, like I said, it was Zac's decision ultimately.  Even thought I think this is not the best decision for us, he thinks it is.  I would rather have him home every night.  I would rather look back on the first few years of our marriage and not recall how much of it I spent alone.  Zac insists the training they are offering him at Best Buy will help him to be much more successful in opening his own home theater and in-home networking business in a few years.  He forgets that that puts the rest of our lives, and a potential family on hold for a "few" years.  Who knows, maybe this is the right choice.  I'm afraid only time will tell.

In other, unrelated news

My sisters and I have a side business that you probably know about called Ethel Edith.  Junk, Funk and Furniture is our little mantra.  Each of us is working on individual projects as well as the joint venture.  Annie is sewing pillows and making magnets.  Maggie makes fairy jars and is working on making stamped jewelry.  I make funny folk art paintings like the two below, and have started making candles.

These are the scents I've made so far: fresh cut grass, rain, clean cotton, jasmine, lily, aloe and clover, peach, sugar cookie, blueberry muffin, cucmber melon, strawberry, and fresh fruit slices which is lemony. Now I need help with clever names for each scent and a name in general for the candles.  I collect noses...I have a nose vase and a couple nose sculptures, so my plan is to use card stock and decorative paper to make my own labels.  The first name I loved was Nose Candy, but Annie says it's inappropriate.  Mom suggested Nose Job.  I also like What's that Smell.  But I'm not 100% yet.  I imagine the peach will be called Just Peachy, and the citrus one Lemon Drop, but the rest....oh the rest, who knows.  I'm just tried of thinking about it.  Help......

A cliffhanger

So.....Zac wouldn't talk to me about the job offer last night.  He is home on Tuesday nights, has Wednesday off, home on Saturday night has Sundays off.  The last two Tuesdays he's gotten home late, like 10:30 late, so I am hoping he is home earlier than that tonight.  He said he thinks it would be better to wait to talk about when he can see my face.  Apparently I give away a lot more in facial expressions than I do in my tone of voice.  Until tonight, I will fret about it.   Feel free to do the same!

Quite the proposition

Gonna need some prayers on this one.  My dad just called to offer my husband a job at our families concrete plant.  They lost their office manager and my brother-in-law Kylie has been filling in part time, trying to learn the protocol.  Kylie works for my cousin Shane as the office manager/book keeper for his masonry business.  Kylie is so loved and appreciated there.  Cousin Shane just thinks he's the greatest.  Essentially, Zac would do the same.  Now, as I've mentioned before, Zac LOVES his job.  He works for Best Buy in St. Louis, so he's gone at least 4 nights every week.  Which is hard on our relationship, but we get through it.  They pay him well, $16.50/hr and he has great benefits, full coverage dental and vision, plus good medical, a 401K matched up to 5% and a life insurance policy which they pay for entirely.  The job at Fox Redi-Mix would be a step in the right direction for many reasons....Zac gets to be home every night, it makes it considerably easier for us to do things like fix up trailers or build a house or allowing my future kids to actually have a father.  He would also have the weekends to try to get a home theater business up and going here, without having to worry about being fired for it.  This also sets us up to keep the Redi-Mix business in our family, who knows, maybe we could even buy out dad one day so he would actually retire (yeah..right huh sisters).   The downside is that the redi-mix doesn't offer benefits.  We are going to start a family in a couple years, Zac needs his wisdom teeth out and I haven't been to the dentist in 6 years, Zac needs to see the eye doctor and get new contacts, etc.  Lots to think about.  I have never been one to push Zac into doing something he wasn't interested in.  And I'm just not sure about this....  Dont get me wrong. I really want Zac to be home and more involved in our family's businesses (as we fiercly loyal, and while it doesn't guarantee we are "set for life," it kinda does at the same time, which is hard to explain....basically, with the way my family works, if they know Zac is reliable and smart, he will always have a good job)  So say some prayers for guidance as we try to decide if we give up all Zac's benefits and his love of his job and the new position he was going to apply for that he was REALLY excited about to come and start a new career path, far removed from what he's doing now, working to keep the family businesses in the family.

If Zac were.....

I got curious after writing this post about how my husband would respond, so I asked.  Now you get to see how different he is from me...not even one the same!

If I were a month, I’d be December.

If I were a day of the week, I’d be Thursday.

If I were a time of day, I’d be 5:30 PM.

If I were a planet, I’d be Jupiter.

If I were a sea animal, I’d be a cobra (he thought I meant animal starting with C, then I explained hahaha) he meant sea turtle.

If I were a direction, I’d be Southwest.

If I were a piece of furniture, I’d be a couch.

If I were a liquid, I’d be cobra venom (hahaha, he's ridic).

If I were a gemstone, I’d be tanzanite.

If I were a tree, I’d be a white ash.

If I were a tool, I’d be flashlight.

If I were a flower, I’d be a tulip.

If I were a kind of weather, I’d be a lightening storm.

If I were a musical instrument, I’d be a marimba.

If I were a color, I’d be blue.

If I were an emotion, I’d be anxious.

If I were a fruit, I’d be a clementine.

If I were a sound, I’d be a gunshot (what!?).

If I were an element, I’d be gallium.

If I were a car, I’d be a 62 Lincoln Continental.

If I were a food, I’d be a taco.

If I were a place, I’d be Canada.

If I were a material, I’d be burlap.

If I were a taste, I’d be nutty (this one made me laugh hard).

If I were a scent, I’d be earthy.

If I were an object, I’d be a TV.

If I were a body part, I’d be a forearm.

If I were a facial expression, I’d be a scowl.

If I were a song, I’d be the happy birthday song.

If I were a pair of shoes, I’d be white alligator skin boots.

What would you be?

If I were....

If I were a month, I’d be August.

If I were a day of the week, I’d be Saturday.

If I were a time of day, I’d be 10:30 AM.

If I were a planet, I’d be Saturn.

If I were a sea animal, I’d be blue whale.

If I were a direction, I’d be West.

If I were a piece of furniture, I’d be a king sized bed.

If I were a liquid, I’d be iced tea.

If I were a gemstone, I’d be peridot.

If I were a tree, I’d be a weeping willow.

If I were a tool, I’d be hammer.

If I were a flower, I’d be a hydrangea (purple/pink).

If I were a kind of weather, I’d be cloudy with a chance of meatballs hahaha, but really, i'd be this, with a breeze good for flying kites.

If I were a musical instrument, I’d be a banjo.

If I were a color, I’d be the special blue of the ocean.

If I were an emotion, I’d be elation.

If I were a fruit, I’d be a Dominican avocado.

If I were a sound, I’d be rustling leaves.

If I were an element, I’d be earth.

If I were a car, I’d be a Jaguar XK 140 Roadster.

If I were a food, I’d be a french baguette.

If I were a place, I’d be a cute boutique in the caribbean!

If I were a material, I’d be a soft cotton t-shirt.

If I were a taste, I’d be sweet.

If I were a scent, I’d be vanilla.

If I were an object, I’d be a moped.

If I were a body part, I’d be the shoulders.

If I were a facial expression, I’d be a wrinkled up nose.

If I were a song, I’d be a snoop dogg hook.

If I were a pair of shoes, I’d be my brown moccasins.

What would you be?

My nemesis

In my valentine's day post I mentioned that I made Zac a chocolate sheet cake, his mom's recipe, that he loves.  This cake is my nemesis.  Everytime I try to make it, things go terribly wrong.  The last time I attempted was the night before Thanksgiving.  I had a million other things to do and didn't get home until 6:30.  I made dinner, cleaned the house, did the laundry, packed Zac and I both (because he always forgets something) and made the cake.  I didn't get to the cake until about 9:30.  I measured everything, mixed it all up, greased and floured my pan, poured it and got it in the oven pretty quickly.  I started washing dishes and about 5 minutes later, when I saw the sour cream tub on the counter, realized I didn't add any to the cake.  I shut off the oven, pulled out the pan, and scraped everything back into my freshly washed mixing bowl.  Then I washed the pan, re-greased and floured, and re-poured the batter, this time with all the ingredients.  When I went to check on the cake 30 minutes later, I realized I'd forgotten to turn the oven back on.  And this is my history with chocolate sheet cake from scratch.

I decided to give it another go on the 12th....then got busy making candles for Ethel Edith and decided instead just to premeasure all my ingredients and then I would be set for the next evening and wouldn't be up late trying to bake again.  So on the 13th, after work and a million other things, I set to work on Zac's cake.  First things first, melting the butter.  I set my bowl of flour and cocoa and sugar on the stove and turned to put the butter in the microwave and heard a whoosh sound.  This was the sound I heard

That's four cups on the carpet.  Carpet.  Awesome.  I flipped over the bowl and scooped in as much as I could.  This is what was left.

I made good decision number two then, I put my hands on my legs and started to stand up...

I was frustrated bad now.  I dumped everything in the trash and started over.  Remeasured, repoured, baked. and it all was going pretty well.  Next, the clean up.  I put away everything that was cold first, then started on dry ingredients.  This is when I made bad decision number three.  Like mom always said, don't pick things up by the lid.  When you do, this happens. 

And cocoa explodes all over your floor.  Notice, the vacuum still out in the corner of the picture.  I thank God that Zac and I got a Dyson.  Thank you God.

This was my little containter after all the cocoa and flour, and sugar.

Now you understand why this cake is my nemesis.  My foe. 

Fortunately, the cake was perfectly cooked, the icing I made melted without clumps for once, and it was DONE!  Zac was thrilled and now I get to make the decision every morning to be terribly unhealthy and eat cake for breakfast.  I never regret it. 

The slums of Shelbyville

As I have mentioned before, my parents own a trailer park.  I am excited for it to be ours one day....which is crazy.  But property is always a good investment (unless it turns into some kind of giant sink hole) and this is a large lot within city limits.  There are lots of home in the park and three are mine.  I don't have any pictures of the second renovation, but I will write about my first two conquests later.  For now...it's all about #36.

I got a call from dad the last Thursday in January.  He said a guy he knew who was a "good shit" had a trailer for sale and it was a good deal.  Now being a good shit is exactly what I wanted to hear.  This means you are honest and you've dealt with my dad before and he was happy with the outcome.  I hope to only deal with "good shits" in my life.  

I called the guy up, he had a 16x80 trailer for sale for $8000, that included the move.  It needed "a couple sheets of drywall, the carpets shampooed and a couple pieces of trim for the countertops and it'll be good to go."  I told him if it was what he said it was, (and dad assured me it would be because of the aforementioned good shitness of the guy) he had himself a deal.  He had me drive a town over to look at pictures of the joint.  I agreed, it was a deal.  I called my banker, got the loan all set up, signed the paperwork on Friday and went Saturday to see it in person, cashiers check in hand.  

Now I knew the trailer had no appliances, I prepped for that by taking and extra $500 dollars on the loan.  What I didn't expect was the everything else I was gonna have to fix.  As it turns out, there were reasons the guy didn't have pictures of any of the bedrooms.  Now...this post is gonna be a little long, pictures are coming.....

This is the trailer itself, pretty sweet blue faux wood gain huh. 

When you walk in, you are in the living room, its a beauty, prep yourself.

We are lucky to have mirrors already in place, so we can check out all angles, all the time.

This is straight in front of you, notice the outlet dangling out of the wall. Safe.

Now if you turn right, you are in the hallway, where someone did this to the wall (this is where the couple sheets of drywall was supposed to go)

Just to your left is the green bedroom.  It's lacking a little, well, wall, both under the window

and where there are gaping holes in the wall

If that green carpet makes you nauseous, you can always stop at the bathroom at the end of the hall.  

While you're there, feel free to find the shower head for me, or the knob that turns the water on and off. 

Just to the left of the bathroom is the blue bedroom, complete with holes at the bottom of the wall. 

From here I'd like you to journey back through the living room to the kitchen.

LOVE the curtains? Me too.

Check out how well the cabinets were taken care of, the faux wood is peeling off and the shelves are rotting out. Oddly, the sink and faucet are really nice (or will be, after they are cleaned).

Oh, the guy I bought it off of forgot to mention that there were two drawers missing. You can see their empty spaces behind the furnace cover.

But, I'm afraid the couple pieces of countertop trim I'm supposed to pick up may not hid this.

There is a little hallway from kitchen to the bath, to your right is the laundry room, which isn't in too bad of shape, but the wall across from it is.

I suppose the door to the laundry room will have to be replaced, concidering it's missing the strip that holds the two sides together (that wall is part of the master bedroom, it's a little dinked up)

Now, the beautiful master bedroom, with a view into the master bath.  And yes, the side of the tub is carpeted.  One word, Luxury!

Now I started to get a little annoyed withe the guy because I had specifically asked him if there was any water damage and he told me "no, not a spot." what then, I ask, is this

or this

I'm lucky though, I can go back into my huge bathroom and take a nice relaxing shower

Ewww right!

Or, hang out with the dead flies

(notice, there is not a bit of countertop trim anywhere)

Or better yet, take a nice long soak in the garden tub.  

I was shocked to find though, upon my return to the trailer yesterday, that since Zac and I moved the trailer in a few days ago, someone or something has taken the liberty to come into what will be our abode and has pooped in our tub.

I'm pissed....and disgusted.

Now, as shocking as it is that someone(thing) has shat in my tub, what's worse is that I'm gonna have to clean it up.  I'm gonna have to scrape and peel and prime and repaint away someone's filth.  Plus, I already know that I'm gonna live here next.  When I get it done, you will see the after pictures and you will be shocked.  It will be liveable, even nice.  Until then, keep me in your prayers.  Apparently someone has a vendetta and they are repaying me one turd at a time.