Abrielle started to break out into hives about 6 days into her antibiotic treatment for her ear infection. She looked pretty darn awful but didn't seem to be bothered by her rash. After a quick check-up from the Dr to make sure it was indeed an allergic reaction we took her off the antibiotics. Guess she inherited her intolerance for Penicillin from me.
I finally finished building and painting my faux mantle for my front dining room. Here it is in all it's natural beautiful glory.
Here's what it looked like with two coats of stain (pardon the mess on the table).
First attempt at distressing it. I was so not loving it (I didn't even bother to notice the picture was out of focus) . Second attempt at repainting and distressing it turned out worst then the first attempt. At this point I was ready to just burn the whole thing to ashes I was so frustrated.
I thought there was no salvaging this projects paint and distress job so I really just let loose and decided whatever I did to this thing could only make it look better. I played around with some Elmer's glue and paint and accidentally got this lovely result. What a happy little accident.
One last close up.
I was able to attend the temple with the Young Women and Young Men from our ward. I LOVE the youth from our ward I am so happy and thrilled I've had the chance to get to know them. They really inspire me. Their parents have done an amazing job teaching these kids the Gospel, they are AMAZING kids!
I used a 1 x 8 board and my silhouette machine to create this wooden sign. I broke the only two scroll saw blades I owned about 10 minutes into this project. I had a crazy OCD moment where I just really wanted to finish cutting it out so I pulled out my jigsaw and finished the project. Did I mention it was cold outside and I did this in my front room. I just might never get all the sawdust out!
Remember this table I built a while back?
I decided I wanted to change it a little. I finally got brave enough to use my table saw. I started out by making a new table top. While I really love the country farm look of the plank style top, my kids have a magical way of filling those plank cracks with all sorts of goobery food that doesn't clean out. My first alteration was to make the top one solid piece so I didn't have to worry about food getting stuck in any cracks. Since I moved the table to the dining room I also wanted to make it rectangular instead of square.
After the new top was complete I had to disassemble the bottom of the table and rebuild the aprons to support the new rectangular top. Then I sanded off the old paint job and restained the whole thing.
I finished it off by painting the bottom white again and lightly distressing it. While it's far from perfect It really did turn out beautifully! I love how everyone of my building project teaches me how to do the job better the next time around. Best part of all I got a "new" solid wood table for about 50 bucks!
One of my goals for this year was to spend a month on each room of our house and improve it in some way. I still have a few things I have to do to get our dining room finished up, but it's coming together really nicely.
The kids have been enjoying the mild January weather as have I!
I cannot remember if I wrote down that Derik was asked to serve as the Elder's Quorum Secretary. We all had a little bit of a laugh yesterday at church when Derik learned he had been released from teaching the youth a little over a month ago. I guess it all worked out since the teacher they called to replace him last month hadn't been able to fulfill his calling until yesterday.
Alivia made High Honor roll again! I love how self motivated she is. I never have to ask her if she's done her homework. She really loves Math and Science right now. She is my little perfectionist. It's a double edged sword. One part of it pushes her to be and do the best she can, and I love that about her, but the other part just doesn't know how to handle making mistakes or not getting things right the first time.
Dylan is still keeping himself busy with writing books, drawing pictures, and dreaming big dreams.
Isaac is counting the days until his birthday, he does a lot of counting down these days. Since I've re-started the No TV Monday thru Thursday thing, he also looks very forward to Fridays. Every day I have to answer for him how many days he has left until he gets to watch TV again. Honestly I love love love how it has worked out so well for our family. My kids get four (if not more) solid days of learning to self entertain and being engaged in real life. He also asked me to take the training wheels off his bike. I think we spent like 5 minutes practicing before he was off riding all by himself. He does really well going up and down the road in a straight line, but loses all confidence if he has to make a turn.
Abrielle has learned to get herself out of her crib. I guess it's time to dismantle the crib for the last time and make it a day bed. She sort of has a terrible habit of thinking that our bed is where she belongs at night.
I was asked to be the YW Camp director for our ward. I'm more than thrilled that I get to go to camp and be with the Young Women, but I really dread the part that makes me in charge of planning camp, making exciting plans and following through with them are not my strong points! Thankfully the Stake is in charge of camp this year, so I shouldn't have too much that I have to do. Rumors are swirling that our Stake is splitting in two weeks and I don't know what that will mean for me or this new calling, I guess we'll just have to see.
