The After Photos - Part 1

Here are some photos of the work we have done to our house. We will post more as we get those areas cleaned and get images.

This is the entry way - changed the color to a light gray but it looks more blue.














We don't have a before of this one. But it was painted the same as the entry (both before and after) and the cabinet at the end was re-stained. The old stain looked similar to the door on the left in the entry.








This is a close up of the cabinet. Trying to show the trim.

The Gardens

Here are the pictures of the Botanical Gardens. We spent most of our time in the Japanese Gardens. There was also an awesome zen garden. Gave us some ideas for our back yard...Enjoy...I had to throw in the picture of Nikole because it is just so darn beautiful!!

ITS OFFICIAL

Philip, Nikole, Meganne and I took our last Sierra Middle School field trip on Wednesday. We went with Meganne's M.E.S.A group--the whole club, not just her windmill team. There were about 33 kids that went and the 3 advisors. We went to the Albuquerque zoo, the M.E.S.A group then went to the aquarium and Nikole, Philip and I went to the Botanical Gardens. The zoo was really fun because the weather was cool enough that the animals were active. Polar bears playing with big blue balls, elephants rolling tires...actually, I have got to tell you about the polar bears. One of them was playing with the ball the majority of the time. He would be on a rock and put the ball in the water then attempt to belly plop onto the ball. It would go shooting up and the bear would go down into the water. Funny funny. Then he decided he needed to get the ball to the top of the exhibit so he rolled it up the little ramp, waterfall thing they have. When he got it to the top he was joined by the other bear. Then he worked the ball up the wall and pushed it off to the outside of the exhibit. He stood there looking over the wall and then the other one went and looked over the wall as well as if to say "huh, guess I shouldn't have done that" to which the other one replies "ya think"!! It was hilarious!!!
Anyway, here are some pictures taken by our future zoologist/wildlife photograper (Nikole). After we were done there, we went to this HUGE pizza/arcade place called IT'Z. It was an awesome place. Anyway, it was a good ending of an era...onto high school :)

FINALLY!!!

For those out there wanting to see pictures of the house--too bad--just kidding. These are some that we took before we moved in. I will get after pictures on soon. We have since changed the dark brown entry way to a slate blue. The pantry is not pink anymore. We did it a dark brown and dark tan color. We haven't really done much to the kitchen (replaced the cooktop) or the living room or the "bonus" room. We are in the process of getting some grass in our back yard. The renters grew a really good crop of weeds and goatheads--I hate goatheads!!! We basically doubled our square footage from our previous place so furniture is a bit scarce, but we are slowly getting there. Updates to come.....
Sorry it took so long--I was STRONGLY encouraged to keep up the blog, so I will try and do better.

What- - January so soon??

Hi all,
So what is the purpose of having a blog? Keeping people up on the happenings? Oh, that is a good idea!!
Well, there isn't a whole lot of new in our lives, but I have high hopes so keep checking back.
The kids are back into school full swing which means that Mom's taxi is back in service. Activity of some kind every day except Friday. It's all good though. There is time to sleep in the summer. Just wanted to update and let everyone know that all is good here in Roswell. Hopefully I will be a bit more vigilant in the updates.
Later......

BACK TO HIGH SCHOOL

On Friday, Philip and I did something we haven't done in forever--for a long time anyway. We went back to high school, a football game anyway. Nikole's team, the Goddard Rockets played Alamagordo and she wanted to go and so Philip and I thought, "What the heck--cheap entertainment!" It was actually alot of fun. Being cool parents, we sent the kids off to mingle with thier friends and socialize and arranged a meeting place for after the game. Well, they ended up sitting with a family from our ward for the whole game. Oh well, they still had fun. Unfortunately we lost by 2 points. We still enjoyed ourselves. Going there just reinforced the fact that we would NOT want to go back to that time in our lives. High school kids today are really strange!! Good thing we were never that way! :)

GOOD NEWS--

Just an update on the "Hopeful" saga. We finally got the color on the walls in the bathroom in which they were intended to go on. And, yes, it was by a brush and not a splash from the can hitting the floor. Nikole loves the color. It is very pink, but it is what she wanted and that is what mattered.
So, third time is a charm and perserverence yeilds success. A little luck didn't hurt either.
And, can I just say that the man at our Home Depot paint department was very sweet in offering to send an armed guard home with us after learning of our mishaps. Thanks Home Depot paint guy!!