This is what is painted on the wall in her bedroom. "If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies" totally appropriate to help her through the change she is going through right now.
This is what is painted in the breakfast area of the family room. Besides the change of our move, I have mentioned my recent diagnosis of diabetes in previous posts, therefore I have decided that I might keep this as well, because I need a reminder now and then that "Life is beautiful".
On July 14 we had already scheduled oral surgery for Hannah. She had her wisdom teeth surgically removed. She did well, she did swell up alot and her jaws bruised, but she has a pretty high pain tolerance so she wanted to go somewhere the same afternoon of the surgery. Her big sister slept for days after her surgery. So for a few days there I was the house nurse.
This is the top after the restoring, there were some pretty deep marks that didn't get covered, and some rings that I don't think were water, they were silver in color and didn't go away. However the top was filled with little pitted spots that were covered after 3 coats. I must say though, the minor scratches disappeared right off the bat with one coat. I was impressed.
Especially considering Michael dropped something on one of the drawers, put a gouge in it and that it covered it right up.
Here are a couple pictures of the front after I was finished. The scuffs around where the knobs were, covered fairly well. They were a lot deeper before I started.
The finish came out really shiny, it was very easy. In case you're wondering about the knobs, it got taken to its' new home before she bought new knobs for it. It is one more piece not in my garage anymore.
Here is the coffee table in the state that she left it, not much done.
Here I am putting stripper on it. I remember doing furniture refinishing in high school, and I remember that I liked doing it. I think I would like doing more, but when you have a job outside of the home, it's hard to find the extra time to do it.
This is a picture of the detail on the leg. It was so dark and dirty before you really couldn't see it. It is actually a beautiful table. 
Here is the leg finished, it looks so much better. She prefers darker furniture than I do. This was after 4 coats of a dark walnut stain. If I was doing the table for me, I probably would have stopped with 3 coats.
Here it is in it's home. The only problem is now Brian can't sit on the floor and play video games, which was what he was doing when we brought it in. 
This is the completed room.
This is what that same wall looked like before the redo. When she was 10 her sister and I did this to her room, it matched a pattern that was on her comforter at that time. However that was on a twin bed and she outgrew that so we had to get her a bigger bed, which meant bigger comforter. The walls are a pale, pale lavender with this design on one wall.
First I put on two coats of white paint with primer in it to cover the purple decoration. That took only one day.
This is the part that took 3 days, oh yes, not to mention the day after I put 2 coats of paint on her walls and ceiling, I could hardly move, so it set me back a morning of work. Then I marked the strips with a level, and taped. Before putting the color on, I did what I call under painting. Got this tip on line, I first painted the taped area where the color would be with the white paint so that the color wouldn't seep under the tape, it really helps to make the lines clean.
Couple pictures of the wall before bringing back in the furniture.
The completed room. I thought it would be crazy on the eyes sitting in a room with these colors and horizontal stripes, but the colors are very soothing. It turned out alot better than I thought it would. 
I finally finished painting Hannah's nightstand that goes with the dresser that I you can see here. I picked up a dresser and nightstand off Craigslist for $75.00. They turned out great once I finished them. When you read my previous post about the dresser, you will see that I was very frustrated with it. I probably should have started with the nightstand first then move on to the bigger piece, because I learned alot about using spray paint, especially on laminate.
This is not its original state, I forgot to take a picture before I put the first coat of paint on. Now I need to find some vintage bookshelves to refinish for her room, right now she has the "bookshelf in a box" from Staples housing all her dolls, books and dvd's. This beautiful nightstand is now the home of her beta fish "Edward" so named because she thinks it looks vampireish.
We were spending Thanksgiving in Pixley at my sisters. As usual, we had the door buster sale papers, and trying to decide if there was anything that we needed, as Kyle would be at Walmart by midnight. I saw these. I showed them to Michael. He didn't say much so I let it go, then later he tells me, "you know if you want those we could stop by Home Depot tomorrow while we're in Bakersfield and see if they still have some." I responded with, "yeah, we could do that", but inside I was screaming like a little girl, who'd just gotten exactly what she wanted Santa to bring.
It almost never snows here, and when it does it usually melts when it hits the ground. This was crazy and gorgeous at the same time.
It was just enough for Hannah to have a little fun in it, but we could go on about our business, go to school and work. Didn't have to shovel or none of the work that comes along with snow. It didn't stick on any of the hard surfaces.
Hey, where's Bentley???
This is our backyard. It was really cool. However, once it warmed up some it all melted. It was gone by the time I got home from work.
Michael prefers evergreen trees, for the obvious reasons, leaves to rake up.
But the yard in at this house is bigger than our last yard, so he planted other types of trees. After Thanksgiving a big wind storm blew almost all the leaves off the trees, so Hannah wanted to rake them up,
and jump in them. She loved it.
Then she proceeded to sit in them and text.
I decided to let Hannah have a few friends over to go trick-or-treating, and watch a movie, so of course we had to have a few snacks before they went off on their quest to get all the candy in the neighborhood. I gave her all the decorations and asked her to set up the table. I think she did a very good job.
but one sudden movement and someone could get injured. These two cats tolerate each other, but put that pup into the mix and there could be trouble. I decided it was best to move away from the couch, I didn't want to lose a limb.
But I must be honest, the star if this post isn't the cake, it is the Cake Platter.
I had been wanting one of these Princess House Cake Platter w/Dome since I was 19, and selling Princess House. It was a Hostess gift. You could only get this if you had a crazy amount of sales, and 3 people from your party hosted a party as well. I had been looking for one for a few years now, and I finally found one at a local antique store. You can find them on e-bay, but they usually go for 70-90 dollars, I got this one for $55.00 baby! Princess House stuff is probably my one extravagance. It is really expensive to buy new, but I look for it at flea marts, thrift stores and antique stores. Every now and then I find something really good, fairly cheap and I jump on it.
When we got this precious guinea pig we had recently put our dog of 13 years down due to cancer. I was promised that "if we get him I won't bug you for a puppy anymore", well we know how that story goes. Anyway, this is a picture of him on the day of his first bath.
He was helping us with our yard sale, he looks very relaxed.
This is my favorite. One day Hannah decided to put a toy cowboy hat on him, he had such a cute face and personality.
The empty space in her bedroom where his cage once stood isn't near as big as the empty space it will leave in our hearts.
What is it with the sink??? One of my followers' cat does this as well. I guess they like it because they are curled up so cozy. When my cats do this I really have to fight the urge to turn the water on. Actually I have turned it on this one before, and his fur is so thick, it usually takes a while for it to sink in. We make fun of this poor fat cat, but we love him, he is so sweet & lovable.
My girls and I watch this now every week. I really love dancing. I was in high school during the disco era, and I absolutely loved the partner dancing. I was a Song/Cheerleader when I was in high school, and I certainly loved the Song portion better. My parents were on a fixed income, so I didn't get to take lessons such as dance. I would have loved it, so now I live vicariously through my girls. Amanda was a cheerleader for 7 years, 2 years of youth cheerleading, one year on a competitive team and all 4 years of high school, I loved watching her, she was very good. Hannah doesn't seem to be interested in cheerleading, however she is on a Hip Hop dance team, plus takes Lyrical and Jazz classes at her dance studio. I love watching her dance she is really good (if I do say so myself).
I know it seems silly to spend every week watching nobody's like they are now somebody, but every star was once a nobody. I love the show, the entertainment, and there are so many other reality shows out there that are in my opinion nasty and awful, our family just loves this one. This year either one of these guys deserved to win. Adam is a fantastic performer, has a great voice, however Kris can sing great as well. I have kind of doubted his performance ability till I saw him last night singing with Keith Urban, and did a fantastic job might I add. I've been saying all along that if he hadn't been competing against Adam Lambert he would win. Well, he won in spite of it. I just love his story, young, newly married college student, worship leader at his church, you know the kind of guy you would want your daughter to marry. I'm not concerned about Adam, I think he will be very successful and all the little teeny boppers out there will find someone else to obsess over tomorrow. Oh, and I could have just died when KISS came out in full get up!!! That brought me to my feet!! I guess there is still a smidge of teeny bopper left in me.
I caught him one day laying on the arm of my couch staring at and stalking some birds outside.
This was one morning when I was getting ready for work, he's doing the same thing, longing to catch a bird. Maybe it's safer for the birds if the cats stay inside, though this cat is so fat I don't think the birds would have anything to worry about.
