Visitors are good motivation

In anticipation of Grandpa and Grandma Sheen's visit this weekend, I've been looking at our home with fresh eyes.  I've tried to tackle some cleaning projects that needed done, like window washing, bathrooms, new bedding, and, the biggest one, reupholstering some kitchen chairs.

So far I've recovered 2 chairs with some red, expanded back vinyl fabric.  Jason says they look like bar stools now, but at least the fabric isn't shredded and we can't see through to the padding anymore, haha!

It felt good to feel "handy" with a rechargeable screwdriver and brand-new staple gun.  Two more chairs to go!

A new nephew! Plus some dialogue on girls vs. boys with Wade input.

Congrats to Aunt Traci, Uncle Derrick, Max and Maggie who welcomed a new baby boy into their family on Sunday, March 9th!  Welcome to Moses Indy!  We'll have to get the story on the name choice--definitely unique and fun!

Their "Squish Face" photo from Facebook--so cute!

We feel so blessed to be an aunt, uncle, and cousin again!

Here are some Sheen grandkid stats:

Girls--Rhiannon, Abby, Olivia, Reta, Maggie
Boys--Wade, Greyson, Baby K (fostered), Collin, Evan, Will, Jonah, Nolan, August, David, Max, Moses, Beck

Girl Power--5
Boy Awesomeness (Wade wanted me to put that)--outnumbers the girls by just a little bit. :) (sarcasm intended)  (Wade typed that sarcasm part).

Here's where the Cushing side stands:

Girls--Rhiannon, McKaleigh, Lilly  (3)
Boys--Wade, Colton, Alex, Sam, Charlie, Tyler  (6)
(Wade--"VICTORY!")

Original Rich and Donna Sheen kids:

Girls--Verity
Boys--Brant, Logan, Jordan, Derrick, Tommy
(Who knows, maybe boys are just too cool for girls-From Wade-o)

See a pattern here?  :)  I'm just glad us girls stick together and can hold our own with these boys crawling all over the place, ha-ha! :)

Another baby on the way for Tom and Lyd later this year--Yeah for new babies!

Can't get enough of these

This photo, taken by a Ridgecrest resident Ken Sanger at our city hall, knocks my socks off.  

The End.

A long, busy day

It's 4 pm and I'm sitting down to take a breather.  It's been a busy day for me, by choice, and I'm happy but tired.  So I'm trying not to complain TOO much about my feet. :)

Worked out
Took dogs for a walk
Subbed for a 4th grade class
Did carpool for elementary kids
Did carpool for middle school kids
Picked up prescriptions
Took Wade somewhere for a haircut
Stopped by the grocery store
Dropped off items to the church
Made a potato salad

Home.  For a little while.

Then I'll finish up with helping to decorate at the church for our Relief Society birthday dinner tonight, enjoy that activity, and then clean up.

Jason took the kids to Taco Bell for dinner and they enjoyed a quiet night at home.

Tomorrow will be a little less go-go-go and more get-stuff-done-at-home!

Update:

The RS activity was a blast.  There was a light but tasty dinner, homemade ice cream cakes, and a gift exchange.  Good turnout, lots of fun!  And I got home by 8:30--yay!

Downer was when I pulled out of the parking lot and the tire light came on in the van.  This morning the back left tire is totally flat.  Grateful for a 3rd vehicle, and grateful for Jason who has a couple new tires ordered already!  :)  After all I did yesterday, I felt really grateful that the tire went kaput at the end of the day and not in the middle of all my craziness!  Thankful!

A window on our life this week

I filled out a "parent ad" for Rhiannon's middle school yearbook tonight, where you pay some money and they put a little love note for your child, from you, into the yearbook.  Wade helped me fill it out and Jason gave his approval.  Hopefully it'll be something Rhiannon will enjoy.  Not too many parents do it, but I couldn't resist, especially since Rhiannon has had so much fun in her yearbook class this year!

Explosion of pollen + crazy wind the last two days = no fun for allergy sufferers.  Wade's doing okay, Rhiannon seems fine, I'm downing essential oils and Zyrtec daily to take the edge off, and Jason been under the weather with it.  You don't see the pollen until someone washes down their sidewalk, and then you can't help but notice the green stuff they're washing off.  Not fun.  On the plus side, the weather is beautiful and spring is almost here!

We drew a square on our chimney out back with chalk for a basketball hoop and the kids have had fun playing some b-ball out on the patio.  Every day.  Wade wanted to go out at 7:30 am on Sunday and do it, and I had to explain to him that it was daylight savings and people would NOT appreciate the steady beat of a basketball at that time of day!

Last night we had our new sister missionaries over for dinner--Sister Green and Sister Waite.  They are lovely and brought a nice energy and spirit into our home!  I made some oatmeal-chocolate-chip cookies for dessert and was reminded why I don't make cookies often.  They get devoured in less than 24 hours, ha-ha, and I certainly help with that!

Last Friday night Rhiannon and I picked up her friend Emily and had a spur-of-the-moment Girls Night.  We went to the high school's Mr. BHS pageant.  It was a total blast, and I had a good time remembering when Rhiannon participated as a little escort a couple of times.  A young man from our ward, Kyle Robins, won the contest fair and square--he did an amazing job!

10 weeks of school left.  YEE-HAW!

Grandpa and Grandma Sheen come for a visit on March 22.  DOUBLE Yee-haw! :)

Thankful for rain!

When we first moved to Ridgecrest back in 1999, I wasn't too impressed by the smells after a rain here.  It was a super-strong scent that didn't smell clean to me.  Maybe it was the part of town we were living at that time, I don't know, but it was stinky!

Fast forward to this weekend and 2 days of glorious, much-needed, prayed-for rain.  I was out walking the dogs this morning and fell in love with that crisp, ridiculously clean smell of a dusty desert town that's had a bath.  Everything looked cleaner, too.  California still needs a lot of rain, but I'm very thankful for the little bit we got this weekend!

Other happy news:

I just updated my Google calendar for the next 3 months.  School's out on May 29th--yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ridgecrest's version of KSL and Craigslist

I've always been super impressed and a little jealous of my relatives' access to buy/sell/trading via Craigslist and KSL.  I didn't think we had anything like that here.

We've tried eBay a few times, but that can be disheartening when you "sell" something and end up in the red after you ship it out, ha-ha!  And thinking of doing a garage sale makes me super-UN-excited.

We do "Goodwill runs" all the time, but after cleaning out some old video games and DVDs I decided to try to make a little more than the good feeling I get in my heart when I donate to Goodwill.  Not that this is a bad thing.  I just wanted to try an experiment.

Well, I hit the Ridgecrest jackpot this weekend using our desert version:  Facebook pages!  There are two very busy buy/sell/trade/ISO (in search of) pages for Ridgecrest, and I was shocked at how quickly I was able to get some cash in my hand and be rid of items we hadn't used in a long time.

$55 later and we are feeling like we're rolling in the dough!  A friend coming by for some items on Monday will bring the total to $75.   Fun!