Let's Back Up a Bit

If I get too thematic with my posts, invariably I miss blogging about sporadic pictures. Here are those pictures.

I know where my kids are going to sit at dinner for the rest of the year. Because my kids fight over everything, I have assigned them their seat at the table during dinner. We change every Tuesday. Did you know there are 24 ways to arrange 4 children at 4 chairs?

They already have to sit in the same seat in the car for 6 months at a time. If they don't knock it off quick, they're going to get assigned cushions on the couch too.

Most of the time when my kids take off with my phone, they bring it back full of videos of fart noises, what they are watching on TV or ugly faces. Sometimes by accident they take cute selfies. I'm assuming he didn't know it or he would have deleted it.

Henry's football season wrapped up September 26. His team didn't win any games but they were so much better that last game than they were their first. I was so proud of him. He always tried his hardest and most always paid attention.

He's already looking forward to playing again next year. Hopefully basketball in December will hold him over.

Erica and my mom were drawing one day at her house. I think Erica is telling her to draw a picture of a house.

September 22. I bought these shoes for James at 12pm. He put them on 2:44 and went outside to play. He came back in at 4:35 and they looked like this. How?

Sometimes you go get your free birthday lunch at Burger Supreme 2 weeks late. Sometimes you have to share it all with your 3-year-old who is obsessed with, but rarely gets, Sprite. "Mom, you were right, these are the best French fries." Yes they are, son.

One night at dinner my kids came to the conclusion that grandma's houses are the best houses. "They have the best food, the best TV, the best toys, the best yards, the best stuff, and they're really nice." Case in point: James eating cereal in the Ninja Turtle bowl circa 1990 at my mom's house after he ate a fruit snack from cupboard.

We rang in fall on October 1 with a large batch of pumpkin cookies. Last year when I made these on a Sunday afternoon, all 50 of them were gone within a couple of hours. We were on pace that night as well.

Sarah, James, and Erica worked on some Halloween decorations..

And then we watched Sleepy Hollow or "Hiccabob" as James calls it.

I mean Wolverine. I also let the kids get the costume tote out and this went immediately on his body and stayed there.

This kid. It would be fine if he would leave the costume and mask on but he's always taking it off to go to the bathroom or a million other reasons and needs someone (usually me) to do up the velcro on the back. Monday afternoon he got blood on it from a bloody nose so it had to go in the laundry and I keep "forgetting" to put it in the washer. 

Friday night was Justin's grandpa's 95th birthday party. A few of Justin's cousins came and this is there son also named Henry. He's 8 and just as cooperative at photos as my Henry.

Typical James smile.

Between conference sessions last weekend I took the kids to the new park here in Spanish Fork. It's a big ol fancy park along the lines of Thunder Junction in St. George. It has a fort of slides....

Typical slides and merry-go-round...

Crazy hillside slides....

This old-school slide was a hit. I think we should come back with some burlap sacks or something.

And a splashpad. There's also a waterfall and river/ditch of water but it was roped off for maintenance.

This was pretty cool. These are each loose on one side so they can be moved to divert water.

Same with these white thingies. Little water engineers in training.

I wish they finished this earlier this summer. That would have been nice.

Then we went back home to our freshly baked and slightly cooled homemade cinnamon rolls. This moment lasted about as long as it took to take this photo.

Sunday between sessions we took the kids for a scooter ride up Hobble Creek Canyon. It was pretty. And crowded but I managed to take this picture of just James.

Sarah helped the littles make Halloween countdowns. For some reason James's has been located to the side of my cedar chest in my room.

He's explaining how it all works.

Tuesday Erica was showing me her handwriting book they just completed. She has great handwriting and I'm proud of her but I took these pictures because she just looked so cool.

She likes school once she gets there. She doesn't like waking up in the morning. Or getting ready for school. Or riding her bike. But I think once she gets there with all her friends she's happy about it. 

She comes in most days in a huff. "How was your day?" 

"Not good," she says. 

"Why?"

"Someone butted me in line"

or

"This kid wouldn't get out of my way on the monkey bars."

There's always some minor injustice that just ruins her whole day.

Justin is hunting this weekend which means I don't have to make real dinner and I can park in the  middle of the garage. But it also means I don't sleep well at night and I have to put everyone to bed by myself and can't watch any of our shows and I just miss him terribly. Get an elk and come home. Any elk will do; they all taste the same.

A tale of two chairs

If you've been a guest at my house, you may have had to sit on this chair with a warning that the seat is not attached so be careful.

I think I got this chair when my Grandma Syme died in 2000. I think. I remember stapling on the blue fabric with help from my sister as a teenager very soon after I got it. But no one in my family remembers this chair at my grandma's house including myself. But the timeline fits and I certainly didn't buy it or find it.

This chair sat in my room in high school, usually piled with clothes.

I took it to college and used it at my desk in all the apartments I lived in.

I brought it to this house when Justin and I moved in. (We had a couch, a bed, a desk, a tv, a cedar chest and this chair). It was sometimes our computer chair, sometimes an extra dining chair, sometimes in our bedroom  piled with clothes. It was last used at our desk in the basement for the computer. Always used with the warning to be careful, the seat is not attached.

On a seemingly unrelated note, this buffet belonged to my Grandpa Baadsgaard. I inherited it last year when my aunt didn't want it anymore. My grandpa had it refinished way back when but didn't like it. It's currently in my parent's shed until I have a house big enough for it. In the meantime I want to learn how to refinish it and put the original hardware back on.

Enter my practice project: the ragamufin chair. (In my defense, the wood looked just like this when I got it.)

I watched youtube videos, read how-to blogs, read up on products. I decided to chemically strip the chair and restain it. Off to the store I went.

All day long I worked on it. Unfortunately it needed to be sanded even after stripping. And then it needed more stripper after that. Back and forth. It's no wonder people just paint antique furniture. Restaining is hard!

I was contemplating how I could paint the buffet instead of staining it. But once I applied the new stain to the chair, it all became worth it.

(I used a dark walnut stain but didn't let it sit at all--just immediately wiped it off and a spray on lacquer)

I liked how it turned out so much I called my mom and asked her if I could have the second chair.

Yes! There is a second chair. A few years back I noticed it's twin at my parents' condo in Hurricane. It stopped me in my tracks. What the heck? It looked the same but not quite the same. The chair came with the house which belonged to my aunt until she died in 2010 and it became my dad's house. The seat upholstery was different and the wood looked a different color but it was for sure my chair's twin.

My mom said I could take it next time I went down there. 

I shared some early photos of my chair with my sisters and my excitement about making over the second chair. Next thing I know, my sister-in-law tells me my niece is on her way home from Hurricane and is bringing me the second chair!

Reunited and it feels so good! I've had my chair for 20 years. I wonder how long they've been apart. How long did my aunt have hers while mine was still at my grandma's? Or did she get hers when I got mine? What were they used for? Are there more than 2? 

I could tell immediately that the stain had more of a yellow tone and that the finish was in much better condition. What different lives these chairs have lived. The better clear coat actually made it much harder for the stripper to get in there and come off. It was a pain.

So I spent another day stripping and sanding and sanding and stripping. I could tell that it was going to maintain it's different color no matter what I did. 

Then after a couple of trips to the fabric store, a trip to the hardware store and borrowing a staple gun, I reupholstered the new seats Justin cut out. Then for the first time in 20 years, the chair has a seat that is attached.

I hoped using the same stain would pull the color closer to mine but alas, no. And it kind of bugs me. But I think as long as they aren't right next to each other I may not notice.

Here's the before and after.

Now the pretty pair are at my parent's house in a spare bedroom until I have a place for them. ::Sigh::

I'm trying to decide if I'm ready to tackle the buffet.

Flashback Friday: My birthdays

Growing up in a family of 10, it seemed like it was always someone's birthday, especially during the fall when 7 of us had our birthdays. By the time I graduated high school we added like 10 nieces and nephews so it seemed like every other week we were having cake. 

And in my own little family, we have a birthday a month Sep-Dec. It's birthday season! 

We had a few birthday traditions when I was a kid which is what I'm flashbacking to today. I don't have pictures of most of what I remember but I know there are tons of home videos and I wish I had those to share. 

Our presents would be wrapped and waiting for us on the piano bench first thing in the morning. If it was a school day, we'd all wake up extra early so we could watch the birthday person open their presents before getting ready for school. Everything was wrapped, even jars of baby food that we asked for. (That is so weird now that I think about it. Fruit flavors only--we weren't asking for pureed peas. I swear baby food was better back in the day--more sugar, I'm sure.) Games, puzzles, toys, a 6-pack of our favorite pop (I'm going back to saying "pop") and clothes.

My mom made our cake--whatever we wanted. She had a tab in her recipe box just for cut-out cake patterns. I remember she'd let us look through it even when it was nowhere near our birthday just to get ideas.

How cute was I??  

Fun fact: I still have that suitcase. Erica uses it all the time.

Always opening presents in pajamas.

Every other year we got to go out to dinner. I usually chose Chuck-a-Rama. The other years we got to have a friend party. We played classic birthday party games like pin the tail on the donkey, the candy bar game and red-rover. When I was maybe 5, my mom took us all to Burger King. I have much treasured home videos of that one. This was before cellphone cameras--someone in my family is walking around Burger King with a big 'ol camcorder on their shoulder!  When I was a young teenager, a couple of times my mom took us all to see a movie at Movies 8 in Provo (Twister and A Little Princess). 

Back before pinterest, birthday parties didn't have themes. "Birthday" was the theme.

Cupcakes and checkers. All you need.

Pictured below is my 12th birthday (what Sarah will be turning next month.) You can see I am a full-on aunt by this age. That little boy on my hip is a grown man. By this time my older sister was making all my birthday cakes. She was a great cake decorator and one of the biggest reasons I love homemade frosting so much.

This picture below makes me happy and sad. So happy to have my grandma singing to me but sad her head got cut out of frame. That's my uncle Chad on the right. I spent a lot of time with him and my aunt Karen (you can only see her arms) as a kid and they were such a good model of a healthy relationship at a time when I needed to see that. His life took a sad turn and he died a few years ago. This is how I remember him

Right after this I was dribbling a water balloon on the table and it burst and got everyone around me wet. I cried in my room until Karen came and got me. 

Not pictured but documented somewhere on film is our most awesome family tradition ever!! When we were really little we would put the birthday cake on the piano bench, light the candles, turn off the lights, hold hands and sing happy birthday while we circled around the bench. Justin has seen the home movies and he says it reminds him of a séance.  Think of it more like dancing around the May pole or the Danish holding hands and singing around the Christmas tree. Maybe that's where we got it. I'm going to make all my kids do it this year.

Which brings me to my birthday this year. I woke up to the sounds of the tape dispenser and paper rustling on my door. I got attacked by butterflies.

And by hearts all the way down the stairs.

My girls even set out the birthday plate and bowl for me.

It wouldn't be my birthday without a Shirley's cinnamon roll. James and I ate them at park in Provo where a proselytizing couple asked if I had heard the healing gospel of Jesus Christ. Why yes, yes I have. They shared a few scriptures and then James told them it was my birthday and that I was 37. They didn't believe it so I guess that's a win.

These are the flowers Justin got for me.

He also got me a new ice cream maker. We made some frozen yogurt and it was soooo good. This machine and I are becoming fast friends.

Screenshot of 1:29 pm, the moment I turned 37. (Sunny and 59 is also my second favorite weather.)

My dear sweet friend Kenzie brought over a balloon and birthday present. It was the biggest balloon we'd ever seen! A couple of days later, to get the kids to stop fighting over it, Justin taught them to inhale the helium. Parenting win.