Hayden and Maddison - Homecoming 2009

Hayden, Maddy and Maddy's friend Holly - homecoming 2009

I know, I know, I am just as terrible as I thought I would be at keeping this blog updated! I only now sat down to update because I have pictures of Hayden and Maddison to post! They went to the Homecoming dance on Saturday and they looked so nice - and Maddy wore a dress!! It was semi-formal and she chose a dress that was short, so you could see all the bruises on her legs from crashing, but that just added to the Maddy-ness of it! :-) Hayden wouldn't give up the jeans, but at least he wore a button up shirt.

They each had a place to go after so I was home alone again - I have to tell you I am NOT liking this at all!! At least Shady was with me, but she doesn't talk nearly enough! :-)

P.S. Lake City lost the homecoming game. :-(

Damn to hell the lazy assed contractor who discovered that spraying drywall putty on a ceiling and letting it dry was a fast way to "finish" a ceiling!! I hope he spends a few lifetimes in hell, and his penance will be to scrape, refill, sand and re-texture a million ceilings!!
Can anyone tell what I have been doing this weekend???? I swear there must be a special place in heaven for contractors who really "finish" ceilings. (you know, the pretty swirly ones, or the nice flat ones) This has got to be one of the WORST jobs I have ever done in this re-model. It may well be the worst job I have ever done. The wetting down and scraping was bad enough - now I have sanded all the areas that David filled (because the LAZY contractor who origionally did this house must have been running low on drywall mud, so didn't fill in all the low spots correctly...Hell, I tell you! ) After I finished, I realized that despite my very best efforts to avoid it, there is a fine dusting of - well, DUST! - all over the house! I have had to vacuum, dust and damp dust almost every surface in the entire house (except the rooms whose doors were shut) Tomorrow we will be spraying the new "texture" on the ceilings, and I will NEVER do this again!! Once these are done, I don't care how it looks, It is staying!!
I have to go blow more drywall dust out my nose..... :-(

Maddy at Motocross

School!!! Look out

Ricky Charmichael!!!

I decided that since I am still getting complaints from my followers, I will be updating this blog with just random everyday stuff instead of trying to fill it with interesting stories :-) you may all regret this....
I have been keeping busy with the remodeling of the house. I am currently taking down the "popcorn" ceilings in the livingroom and the room Hayden is moving into (Justines old room). What a messy hassell(sp?) that has been! I bought the special tools that are supposed to cut down on the mess, but they don't work as good as advertised - surprise, surprise - so there has been a ton of cleanup every time! I worked on the livingroom last week and I am finishing the bedroom this week so David and I can team up to put the new ceilings up. We are using the knockdown method, basically popcorn that is flat. It is much more modern of a look and I want something that I don't have to vacuum every month (you know this is true Mom and Doug!) The ceilings will stay white and I will paint the walls a color. David thought it would be a good idea to pick several colors and let everyone have a say - I decided that that is a dumb idea and I will pick the one I like the best. David and I like the same color and we will be here longer! :-) Hayden will now only pick the color for his room and Maddy will pick hers when we get closer to doing that room.
Maddy got to go to a motocross school in Vantage last weekend. It was sure nice to have her out racing again! It is still too cold here, but it was 50 degrees there. David got some nice pictures of her jumping with the sun in the background (silouhetted) but they were only on the phone so when I post them they will be really small. Hayden has been practicing all week for his drivers test that we thought he would be taking this week, only to find out that it is in fact not until April 15th. We were both disappointed to say the least! He is really a good driver and I was looking forward to having a helper! So we will wait one more month. He will be driving by summer, though, which will be an even bigger help.
I will post those pics of Maddy next....

OK! OK! I am not the best t keeping this up and I have heard from everyone who bothers to read this that it is time for another post..

I have heard from Justine now twice. The first call was 30 seconds long and garbled from a bad connection, so I could hardly hear a work she said, which made me soooo sad! Then last Sunday, she called again and we got to talk for 10 minutes, so I am happy again. She did say she would get a few more phone calls, so I am happy about that, but she said that they don't let you write much so not to expect any letters back from her any time soon. Its ok for me, because I will just keep writing to her. It has been a weird experience to have her gone like this - She has never really been away from home for any significant time and I miss her terribly! She was driving me crazy the last few weeks she was here because she was bored, but she was still a help for me to have around. Even if it was just someone to talk to on a more "grownup" level. (And the fact that she is funny as hell doesn't hurt) I can't go to her graduation in April either because of the lack of time off I have for work since my knee and foot incident so I probably won't see her until summer - it just kills me!
I have been keeping busy to keep my mind off Justine. I am trying to finish "my" part of the remodel of the house. Last week I took all the popcorn ceiling down from the livingroom and chose the paint for the walls. On my next week off I will paint and put the new texture on the ceiling so David can get hot on the flooring. After all that is done, I will pick the new furniture (I know, I know, it has been a long time coming!) and put up the new baseboards and door frames. David is progressing nicely with the upper cabinet doors for the kitchen and will be starting the lower facing soon. The cabinets are ready for stain and they are beautiful! I am ready to put them up because everything inside the open cabinets is getting dusty from exposure. More dishes to wash UGH!! I am also going to work on moving Hayden from the upstairs bedroom to Justines old room. I have to paint in there too because there are purple flowers on the walls. Hayden offered to help me and I will take full advantage of it! I should have had her room cleaned out by now, but the first few days I tried to do it I just got all teary putting her stuff in storage boxes. (such a big baby!) I will be done with the packing by the end of this week and the carpets will be cleaned after we paint, so by next week he should have his new room.
Maddison is going to help me too, but she is doing her bathroom. She said it needs to be more "boyish" since Hayden will be sharing with her now. I have picked a stripe pattern in a navy/green/teal/white combination for the shower curtain and we will paint the walls in something (haven't decided on that) He will use the shower in my bathroom still since the showerhead in her shower hits him at about neck level (thanks to all my tall family for letting me know that!) and it is going to cost WAY too much money to fix. We would have to cut the wall to move it higher and it is way too much work with everything else going on this summer. (All my tall family members need to use MY shower from now on! :-) Maddy is getting new bedding in her room but doesn't want it painted anymore, now she is just covering everything up with her racing posters.
Hayden broke his finger a month ago but didn't know it. He was messing around playing basketball at Codys house and smashed it into another kids elbow. It swelled up but I thought he just jammed it. We had gone to the doctor about his knee ( he has Osgood-Schlatter syndrome) and he mentioned the finger in passing. The doc took one look at it and said"X-ray". Sure enough it was broken. He has to wear a splint for 3 weeks. (don't worry, he is still playing baseball and basketball)and then re-evaluate - possible surgery if it doesn't heal. We will plan anything like that for off-season so he won't miss any sports.
Hayden also started baseball (Freshmen team) and started practicing with his traveling basketball team. His first baseball game is on the 20th and his first basketball tournament is on March 28th. Maddison has a racing class in Vantage tomorrow and her first race is the 28th weekend too. We are getting in the swing for the summer sports, so if anyone wants to come and visit and watch, let me know and I'll pass on the entire schedule!
until next time.......

Well, the day has finally come! I dropped Justine off to ship out for basic training! I dropped her off at the hotel and we had decided in advance that I would just drop her off and leave quickly so we could cry on our own, or we may never have stopped crying! She was right. I cried until I got to Post Falls and I had a headache for the rest of the night. I know this will be a good thing for her, but I still hate to lose one of my babies! They seem so young at 18. Not nearly ready to face the world, but there she goes...
In other news, we found out that one of her best friends is pregnant! While she is young and this will put a little damper on her education for now, I still can't help but be thrilled at the idea of having another baby around! I miss the babies! Maybe now I can be a full time grandma to a little one until MY OWN grandson comes back! :-)
I will call or e-mail everyone when I get Justines address in boot camp so we can all flood her with letters and cards. I want to give her as much support as possible!

Well, there aren't any pictures yet to post, but I thought I should let everyone know that Haydens team won their last game of the freshmen season in DOUBLE overtime 62 to 59. We played a Priest River JV team that came to play us at the end of their undefeated season. It was by far the best game we had all season (Hayden got 11 points) and a great way to go out! We played Moscow yesterday and also won by 8, (Hayden had 12 points in that one) which felt really good after going down to Moscow and losing to them with what seemed like hometown refing. (or would that be "reffing", I'm just not sure) The boys wanted to beat them so bad - they were fired up for that one for sure! So ends another great basketball season and I will post some pictures of him playing as soon as I can get some ordered. We are getting them from the photographer that takes them at our games because my camera is just so crappy for inside the gym pictures.
In other news, Justine leaves for boot camp on Monday. :-( I will be sad to see her go even though I know it is something she really wants to do. I am the Mom and as the Mom I am supposed to hate it when my babies fly the coop! And anyone who knows me knows that I really do hate it (Sydney - grrr!) I had a parental breifing from her recruiter and he told me that her first phone call to me would be full of tears and pleas to get her out of there, but not to worry because it happens to everyone! Now, I don't know about you, but when I heard that I wanted to choke him. Who says that to an overprotective Mom???!!! S-I-G-H!!! This will be harder on me than her I am sure! So, anyone wanting to wish her well should call before we leave on Monday at 5:00.