She's off to college....

And just like that she's off to college...I have so many mixed emotions about this!  On one hand I am so excited for her to begin a new adventure.  One where she gets to be in charge and make her own decisions and choices.  I'm excited for her to have so many wonderful experiences and see the world through her eyes.  On the other hand, I am sad.  I only got her for 3 years.  She won't be at home any more.  Our whole family dynamic changes.  I'm sad she won't be around for all of the experiences that we have and the memories that we will make...I worry that the relationship I have with her will not be enough and that she won't be bonded to our family as much as the other kids.  This blending families business is hard work!

I hope she knows how much she means to me......how much I love her.....how much I've enjoyed the last few years with her...I hope she knows that I am here if she needs me....and that no amount of distance will change that.

So with that sweet Lucy....go take on the world and make it a better place....the one where you hoped you could make the difference....experience life and all of the joys and sorrows....and we will be right here when you need us!!  Happy first year of college!!

She even sent me a 1st day of school pic because she knows how much I love them!!

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Heather

Italy 2018

Italy has never been on my bucket list...but it should have been!!  We had the wonderful opportunity to go to Tuscany this year.  We found an amazing deal that we just couldn't pass up!!


I get emails from a website called Travelzoo.  If you don't subscribe to them and you love to travel, you really should subscribe!!  They have some really great opportunities to travel on a budget. This particular trip caught us by surprise.  Next up on my bucket list was England.  When the deal for Italy came about I sent it to my husband just joking, but SURPRISE...the joke was on me...he said to book it!  So after some research, we did!  We did extend the trip by a couple of days so that we could also go to Rome.  We ended up visiting Montecatini, Florence, Pisa, Lucca, Venice and Rome in 10 days.  It was beautiful.  The weather was great.  We were a little worried going in January/February as it is their rainy season, but it only rained for a couple of hours one day.  I would definitely go again during the off season....less crowds, much cooler and still so many amazing things to see!

We rented a car in Milan and drove to Montecatini, Venice and back to Milan.  It was fun to see the actual country and make pit stops wherever we wanted.  They drive on the same side of the street as we do in America so that wasn't an issue.  They do have toll roads and learning to navigate those was a little tricky since we aren't accustom to them in our neck of the woods here in America, but you can pay either with Euros or a credit card.  The city streets are a little harder to get around on as they are curvy and the streets aren't well marked in some parts of the country.  We didn't drive into most of the cities in Italy.  I would definitely recommend taking public transportation.  Their transportation system is superb.  We took the Metros, the high speed trains and the buses.  Its very easy to navigate & using Google Maps makes it simple to know what form of transportation you need & where to pick it up! 

We got some of the passes to see things while in Florence and Rome.  The Firenze Pass in Florence and the Roma Pass in Rome.  They essentially get you into some museums, skip the lines and allow you to take public transit for less money.  They both have time restraints so be sure to plan ahead with the things you want to see & do them according to your passes.

We used Rick Steves ' Italy book ALOT!!  He has so much good information and we followed alot of what he says.  His maps of the cities were very helpful and just his details of the cities made it much easier to get around and to determine what was a priority to see.  I would recommend at least giving it a quick read of the places you are thinking of visiting!!

My favorite city was Venice.  There is something about a city on the water.  Bridges connecting you to everything.  Old buildings and the smell of baked goods wafting through the streets.  The old architecture of the buildings and the stories of the infancy of the city.  Its rustic and charming and beautiful.  Oh and it's where I had my first taste of Italian Hot Chocolate...its sooo good!  Thicker than American Hot Chocolate...creamy...mmm...delicious!

My next favorite thing to see was the Colosseum!  Its exactly what you see in photos.  Its old and run down and missing some of the elaborate details that once made it a masterpiece.  But, it is also so massive and solid and has stood the test of thousands of years.  Its inspiring, a sign to all that you can withstand even the hardest things in life and still be beautiful....Amazing!  The Romans constructed some awesome things!!  Rome is filled with a lot of things to see...the Vatican, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Forum, Palatine Hill (another one of my favorites) and lots of museums and culture to explore.  It was more of a city feel than I expected, but the history there runs deep!

Florence is filled with soo many museums and places to shop...and leather...LOTS of leather, very reasonably priced I might add...It's a busy town with lots of wonderful things to see.  I loved the stories of the Medici family.  They eventually became one of the most influential families in all of Florence, they even produced a Pope...Leo X.  Check out the Pitti Palace, which was one of their residences!  Incredible!!  The other cool place was the Florence Cathedral where you can also climb the Duomo or the Bell Tower.  Tickets to the Duomo sell out quickly so check early if you are interested in climbing it.  We ended up climbing the bell tower, which is just as exhilarating!!  The views of the city are spectacular!! Take a look...

Pisa and Lucca were fun cities as well.  Lots of shopping in Pisa and of course the main attraction, The Leaning Tower of Pisa.  We climbed the tower, which was fun and gave you a beautiful view of the surrounding city.  It was much less crowded than the other cities of Italy.  Lucca is famous for their intact Renaissance Era walls that were never breached.  It's now a pedestrian walkway which circles the entire city.  Its amazing!  Lots of families and people using it.  Such a quaint little city.  We really enjoyed visiting it!

I'm so glad we came across this trip.  It was completely unexpected, but so worth it.  I loved every second of my time there.  10 days was obviously not enough, but now we have a better idea of what we would spend more time seeing on our next trip there!  And since we rubbed the nose of the boar in the Mercato Nuovo we will be returning!!

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Heather

DIY Garage Floor Sealer

So here is another DIY project for you!  Last winter we noticed a leak in the ceiling of our bonus family space in the basement.  It is underneath our suspended garage.  After some investigation we noticed a LARGE crack in the cement.  The water from melting snow on the tires of our vehicles was leaking down into the crack and into the ceiling of our bonus room!!  NOOOOOOO!!!  So we knew we were going to have to fix that this year!  Well...spring and summer came & went.  The kids keep us running and we could never find the time to get it fixed.  So here it was the end of September and we finally started to research and carry out our DIY!  We decided to go with a Rustoleum epoxy product.

Before we could finish our floor we had some prep work to get done!  First we had to either pressure wash, acid wash or grind the existing sealant off.  Since we had a leak already we decided to go the grinding route.  Mostly you want to rough up the concrete enough that the epoxy will stick to it.  We rented a grinder from Home Depot and went to work.  It took us about 12 hours to complete our 3 car garage.  It was a longer process than we had hoped, but we finally accomplished our task.

And it does get DUSTY while you are using the grinder so be sure to use a mask.  There is a place to plug in a shop vac to the grinder and I would definitely do that!!

We filled the cracks with Sika Crack Fix.  It took a couple of tubes to get this sealed.   It works best if you clean out all of the loose cement from the crack and then vacuum up the dust BEFORE you apply the crack fix.  After that, you will need to let it dry for 24 hours.

Once that is dry you will need to mop the entire surface you are going to apply the epoxy to and wait for it to dry.  Next, tape off the edges and then you are ready to start applying the epoxy.  You are going to want to start on all of the outer edges first with a paint brush and then roll the rest with a roller.  We went over each section twice to be sure we got it covered well. 

Once you are satisfied with the coverage of the section you are working on then throw the paint chips down.  This makes the finish stronger and holds together the epoxy better!  We chose a blue, gray, black & white mix.  My husband rolled the epoxy on while I scattered the paint chips.  This part took us about 2 hours to complete.   This is what it looks like close up....

 

It takes 24-48 hours to dry.  You cannot park a vehicle on it for that long.  And the recommended temperature is no lower than 55 degrees.  It got a little cooler than that on the first night we did it so we let it dry for at least 48 hours.  They also recommend no direct sunlight to be on the epoxy while it dries so we closed our garage door!  Overall we are happy with the way it turned out.  Here's hoping it will bring us many years of dry ceilings!!  It was a weekend project, but we are doing ours in sections due to the amount of stuff we have in our garage.  So we did the 2 car side first and we are now tackling the 1 car side.


This is for sure a project you can do yourself and save yourself thousands of dollars, but be prepared to spend some time getting it done!  Happy sealing!!










My First Furniture Restore

So I acquired this cool old piece of furniture from a family friend.  It was old and been sitting in a garage for some years.  It was dirty and broken down and in need of some much needed attention.  I had been in Vernal for a baseball tournament with my son and I stumbled upon this cute little store, Ohh La La and Friends,  and fell in love with chalk paint.  They were really kind and told me about the paint and how easy it was to use.  They only used the Annie Sloan brand and they LOVED it!!  I told my husband I wanted to try it with a small item...a frame or something...but then this happened!!


I cleaned it, taped off the mirrors and glass pieces, removed the old hardware and looked at a few pieces online to get an idea of what I wanted to do and decided I was ready to try it!  I went to my local distributor of Annie Sloan paint, Drab 2 Fab.  They walked me through what I would need to get started, from brushes to paint to wax, they even showed me on a sample piece how to use the wax and what it should feel like when I was finished! They were awesome & I will definitely be going back for more supplies.  I chose the Annie Sloan French Linen paint.  I also decided I was going to wax my piece instead of using another type of finish.  I purchased both the light wax to seal my piece and then the Dark Wax to antique it with.


After I cleaned my piece and let it dry I decided to use a shellac to seal it so that no color from the wood or the years of using pledge or other oils would bleed through my paint.  After that, I started painting.  Most things I read said it didn't matter on the first coat what direction you painted, just to get it all covered.  I tried to go all the same direction if I could, but in those harder to reach places I didn't care so much.  Here is what it looked like after the 1st coat....

At first I was worried...it looked a mess, but from reading online, that's what the first coat does!  Phew!!!  I waited 3 hours to let it dry and then I put on the second coat, which I did paint all in the same direction, mostly because I wasn't sure if I would need 2 or 3 coats.  I let that dry overnight and then looked it over.  I decided it needed one more coat.  With this coat, I dipped my brush in a little bit of water and then made long strokes in the same direction.  I didn't want a lot of texture in the paint and this seemed to make my finish look more smooth and less brush lines.  I let that dry overnight, ok...maybe a few days until I could get back to it!  This is what it looked like...

I then waxed the piece with the Annie Sloan Clear Wax.  I just did small sections at a time and wiped it down with some painters cheese cloth to get the excess wax off.  Then I began using the Annie Sloan Dark Wax.  I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to use the dark wax on so I just started applying it to places I thought might accent it nicely.  I wasn't too worried because I knew I could always put the clear wax on it to take the dark wax off.  I started by using a sponge, throw away brush, but then I switched to just an old cotton t-shirt that wouldn't leave any cloth residue on my piece.  Here is a picture of how I started using the dark wax...

I didn't love how that was looking and I couldn't decided if I wanted to put the dark wax on the whole piece or use the clear wax to remove it all.  After thinking it over, I decided I liked the antique look and I would use the dark wax on the entire piece.  So with cloth in hand, I put some dark wax on and then rubbed it into the piece until I was satisfied.  Here is the final piece...

I added new hardware and then a wallpaper finish to the back of the piece behind the shelves.  I actually just had a piece of plywood cut to size and put the wallpaper on that in case I wanted to change it out from time to time.  I am very pleased with the final product.  It was a fun project and I loved learning to use the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint!  Now on to the next project.....

Provo City Center Open House

Today we were able to attend the Provo City Center Temple open house.  It was FREEZING!  But soo worth it!  I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We believe that sacred ordinances are performed in temples.  Learn more about temples HERE.


This temple was so beautiful.  It is the 2nd temple in Provo and was previously the Provo Tabernacle until it was destroyed by a fire.  Read more about its history HERE.  I am thankful we were able to walk through it with our family before it was dedicated.  Our kids loved the baptismal font and the celestial room.  I think what they loved most was being able to experience it with their cousins!


I'm thankful for my beliefs and for the Savior Jesus Christ and for all of the people who worked so hard to bring this blessing of the temple to us all.

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Heather

Moab for the Win

We are officially only seeing each other and we decided to take a trip with our kids to Moab.  We know it's only February and we were probably insane, but it all worked out!! 

The weather was almost perfect & not very crowded this time of year!!  We walked right into every arch and didn't have to wait for any people.  The kids got along and there wasn't any fighting.  Rex's youngest is 5 & she got tired of walking during certain parts, but we tried to help her and carry her some so we could see the things we all wanted to see.  We ended up getting a condo instead of 2 hotel rooms.  It was cheaper and more comfortable to everyone.  I would definitely recommend doing that if you have a big family.  Everyone can have their own space and enjoy the trip.  Also, cooking is ALOT cheaper than eating out for every meal.  Since we went over President's Day, entry to Arches National Park was free. However, its only $25 for a private vehicle with up to 15 passengers, so still really affordable! 


Here are some pictures of Arches!  Did I mention, its absolutely beautiful!!

This is Double Arch

This place was really cool & the kids LOVED it!  Especially Ceceila!  You hike into it and then there are sand dunes to play in and an arch...hence its name, Sand Dune Arch.  Really a fun place if you have smaller kids!!

Landscape Arch is in the distance.  The kids think they are so cool in this pic, (and lets be honest...they are!!) they got the perfect photo bomb!  But we LOVE it!  I think this is one of my favorite memories of Arches!  I love that they did this!

We also went to Dead Horse Point State Park.  This is where the "almost perfect weather" comes in!

Yeah..it snowed!  We tried to get out and walk around and see the visitor's center and the outlook points, but it was just plain too cold and wet!  So, we didn't get to see as much of it as we had hoped.  We also had plans for Canyonlands, but it was in the same proximity and was getting snow as well so we bagged that!  I will say that the snow falling around all of the red rock made a beautiful sight.  We'll have to make that trip again!


Rex's sister and her family also came out for a few days too and it was fun to get to spend some time with them and get to know them a little bit better.  We were also able to see his parents for a little while.  They were on their way to serve their mission in New Mexico.  I'm really glad that we decided to take this trip together and get to know each other better.  It was a great way to spend President's Weekend!

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Heather





Meeting the Kids

This dating thing is hard enough, but adding children in the mix is a whole other thing.  I have introduced Kaylie to one other person I have dated.  When things don't work out or if your child doesn't like the new person in your life it is difficult.  Hopefully if things don't work out, your child won't have grown too attached to the person, and if they just plain don't like your new man (or woman) it could be the end of maybe what could have been a great fit for you.  Or perhaps, it creates other tensions that make your relationship as a whole strained.  I have never been a big supporter of introducing my daughter to many of the people I have dated.  Mostly because my ex-husband did that with women he would date and there was one that my daughter was devastated about when they stopped dating.  I feel like divorce is such a life changing event for a child that introducing them to people you are just casually dating is too emotionally draining for them.  Its a messy situation any way and that seemed to make things so much worse for our situation. 


The first time I introduced her to someone was a mistake.  I knew deep down that the relationship wouldn't be long lasting, but we were spending a lot of time together and he had a small child and so I went along with it.  I shouldn't have.  Not because Kaylie was fond of him, and she wasn't affected when we ended the relationship, but because I let what seemed good in the moment take precedence over what I knew would be the long term result of the relationship.  Live and learn.  From that time forward I never introduced her to anyone...until now!!


So the nice guy....the guy interested in a real relationship....he is great!!  He is someone I could definitely have a future with.  We have been dating for a few months and we think it's time we meet the kids!!  Kaylie got to meet him first!


Rex and I had been hiking in the mountains collecting sticks to make a Christmas Tree project for my activity day girls.  It was getting later in the day and Kaylie would be coming home from school.  So when she came home, Rex was at the house & I introduced them.  She was of course shy and didn't interact much, but she wasn't closed off to meeting him.  She knew I had been dating him for awhile and she would frequently ask if she was going to get to meet him.  She thought he was nice.  She was interested in meeting his kids and learning more about them.


Once he had met my daughter we thought it would be best if both Kaylie & I came to his house to meet his children.  We planned to come over for dinner one night & just hang out and get to know each other a little bit.  I was nervous, but excited to meet the kids I had heard so much about.  They were very polite and quiet, but welcoming.  I'm sure it was equally nerve racking for them.  We had a nice time talking and finding out a little about  each other!!  His son sure does LOVE sports!!  He knew every stat for every sport..especially baseball!  And his youngest daughter wanted to play with her toys and be included in every aspect of the night!  And her curly hair....ADORABLE!!  His oldest daughter was more quiet and reserve, but sweet and friendly.  She is a talented piano player and it was fun to listen to her play.


Overall it was a successful night!  The kids seemed to get along well with each other, which is one thing I worry about.  Kaylie being an only child...I hope that she would be accepted as a sibling or at least a lifelong friend and included in every part of the family, even when we aren't around.  I know that will take some time to develop.  Its a big step for everyone!


Recently we attended a BYU basketball game...did I mention Rex is a Cougar graduate??  So we went to a basketball game together.  It was fun and the kids were funny posing for pictures.  I am really enjoying the time we spend together.  They are all great kids and I kinda like Rex too!!  I'm still optimistic on where this could go 😉