House Changes

Where is everyone?! Not that I have been a devout blogger myself, but it seems like blogging is becoming... I don't know... I have a few friends who are devout bloggers, almost on a daily basis. I struggle with 1- time, like everyone I'm sure, and 2- I just don't think I'm witty enough to blog sometimes. It's not that I think I need to have pictures all of the time or something SPECTACULAR to blog about or anything like that, but I want people to enjoy reading my blog. And I just haven't felt like I've done anything blog worthy these days. If you ask me whats up I couldn't tell you, however, I know I'm busy, it just seems like every day is the same as the previous day. Is this how anyone else's life is? Does it make me boring? Cuz I feel like I am L-A-M-E-OH!

When I actually started thinking about some of the things we've been doing I realized I do have a few things I could share...

First, my living room... I repainted the living room earlier in the summer. We've just had the walls the original color they were painted when the house was built. Just a light greyish plain color. So this summer I decided to paint some walls. I did most of the living room a light tanish beige kind of color and then did a DARK Chocolate Brown Wall. Which I loved. I took the lighter color and pretty much repainted the whole downstairs. Kitchen, hallways, dining room, etc. Well, then I went looking for drapes. Not easy when walls are already painted. I've always had drapes first, I LOVE drapes, and then do everything else around my drapes. So I ran into some drape dilemas... I finally found some fabric that I liked OK. So I made drapes and matching pillows.

Then I put my pictures up... I made these two frames, they started out as a piece of 4x8 plywood, we REALLY made them, put some pictures in them, repaited this window frame and threw pictures in that... and heres what I ended up with....

I put up these pics....


and then I moved on to my bedroom... did the same colors in here, found bedding that I liked. I needed drapes to match, again... GOOD LUCK! I could not match the blue/grey/metallic color in the bedding. I ended up finding the same bedding set and decided I could make my own drapes. I cut up the comforter and sewed drapes to hang and ended up with a complete bedroom. It worked out well because if you can tell the pattern on the drapes is reversed. When I cut up the comforter I realized one side was the same as the comforter I have on the bed and the other side was exactly the same but reversed. I thought that was awesome.
Here's how that ended up...


Then I moved onto the bathroom. I decided to do a RED wall. I repainted the rest of the walls the same beigey color and then did the big wall behind the mirror and tub in a dark red! I put it up and loved it. I'd thought about doing my room red but then found the other bed set that was pretty and affordable. I'm not good at waiting and shopping around. I will probably end up changing it out sooner, because I don't TOTALLY love it, but for now it works. So I finish painting the bathrooms, and I'm looking at the red thinking to my self... "Hmmmmm, self, this red would TOTALLY match my drapes in my living room!" So.... yep you guessed it...


I wish I would've done a before, before-before, and now an after! Now I have a red wall, a repainted fireplace mantel and the archway going into the dining room is now the really dark brown too. I like it all so much better.

I moved the shelf we'd made with the pictures, that used to be in the living room, into the office. I love this shelf and these pictures so much!


So you'd think that'd be it, right? Nope! I redid a bed for Kennedy... It was pretty cute before... I think its funny... I bought a head board, ok, actually my friend Kareen gave it to me! TOTAL SCORE! I Love it! Anyway, so I get a head board and footboard that are a little worn, so I repaint it white, and then I scuff it all up and sand it to make it look distressed. Couldn't I have just left it the way it was??? What's up with that? Kind of funny! Then I put these little sticker embellishements on it... Aren't they so cute? I LOVE the way it turned out!



Sooo... I get this totally cute bed all done, I know I still need bedding, just haven't wanted to spend the money yet, she hasn't noticed!, and she starts climbing into bed with Landon every night. We decide that we ought to just put her bed in the boys room if she's going to do that every night. We put the boys in bunk beds, I forgot how much I hate bunkbeds... changing sheets, making the bed, trying to give Loves to the kid in the top bed.... anyway, they are in bunkbeds, and her bed is now in there. We put all of the dressers in her room, which is all cute by the way... Oh well. She's happy in there and they like having her in there. I figure we should enjoy it while we can, that they want to all be in the same room.

Now we are thinking about moving all of them with beds and dressers into the toy room so they would acually have some room. But then we would have 3 spare bedrooms so I don't really know what the point of that would be. Any thoughts for me? How long do kids like to share? Are they going to grow out of it soon do you think? I have to redo everything and then have to change it all back, ya know?

This has turned into the LONGEST POST EVER! SORRY!!! I hope you've enjoyed seeing what I've done. I've been crafting like crazy too. Next post will be pictures of some of the cute things we've done.

Olympic Titanium Man Triathalon 2009

This was the weekend!!! We've been gearing up for the Triathalon for some time now, well, some of us have. Amanda, Sonja & I decided to do it 2 weeks ago, then Sun had some stuff come up and wasn't able to train over the last couple of weeks, but then at the last minute, SERIOUSLY, the NIGHT before decided she was in... I think the guys all knew they were going to do it most of the summer and trained accordingly. Except Jacob, who kept saying he was going to do it, but who has apparently decided he going to become "Jacob NO TRAIN Rose", instead of "Big Draft" since there was no drafting allowed. (OK- So I'm not quite as witty as you guys are, but I'm trying...:))

We were all pretty stoked for it Friday night as we met outside of Kimos to pick up our race packets. I don't know about anybody else, but I could NOT sleep! I kept thinking about the transitions and timing and hoping I would get under the 3 hour mark... Without recapping the whole thing, everyone did AWESOME! It was so fun to have so many friends out there doing it together. Although, the whole time I was running and they were all passing by me heading back to the finish I was wishing I was one of them. Amanda and I rode together over the last couple of weeks and looking at our times we were pretty similar. She kicked my butt out of the water, by like 8 minutes! (I gotta swim this year!) Unfortunately, my transition time out of the water was not good. 4 1/2 minutes, UGH! Technical difficulties with my outfit. (Note to self: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CHANGE SHIRTS IN FUTURE!!!)I was hoping to catch her on the bike but although I gained 4 minutes she still had a few minutes on me. Which was a bummer cuz we were hoping to run together. Our runs were only 1 minute apart, we were just had 5 minutes between us... I think we both would've done better had we been with each other. I was so ready to be DONE during that run. It would've been so much better to be with someone.

The guys all caught up to each other there at the end... apparently Billy the "Lightning Bolt" made up some serious time on the run! Jared, Billy and Eric all finished with in a minute of each other, right around 2:30. Cory came in about 20 minutes later, then Terry. Jacob could've done better and finished for sure in under 3 hours, but waited for me at the bottom of the last 1/4 mile to the finish so we could finish together. What a STUD! I was so happy to see him there! Terry finished even though a few weeks ago he pulled a muscle and hasn't been running much. It was giving him a lot of trouble for almost the whole run. I don't know how he was able to even keep going and finish, but he did. Way to go Terry. I know you are disappointed with your time, so am I (with mine, I mean, not yours) but next year, RIGHT?
I can't believe Sun finished, with the least training of all. She rocked it!
Next year... I will do much better. I will actually swim, more than once, and run... I just didn't want to do either of those things to train. It was so fun and so hard. Thanks to all the support, other family members, friends, Rach and Maya for taking the kids along to cheer. It was so fun to see them out on the ride!

Here are the pics we have! Enjoy!
I'm pretty sure this is Jared coming out of the water... Hard to tell as everyone pretty much looks the same with there goggles and orange caps on. If not, sorry Jared...

Cory on bike...


Jacob and Annette...

Jared...

Mark...


Jacob and Annette transition to run...



Sun... finishing bike ride and starting run....

Sonja finishing...

Terry finishing...

Jared Finishing...(sorry, you kind of got cut off...)

Jacob and Annette finishing...

Cory coming upto finish line...

Eric coming up to finish line...

Billy coming up to the finish line...

Amanda coming up to the finish line...

Lowe's at the finish line...

Roses at the finish line....

Liley, Gabbi and Kennedy playing at the finish line! How cute are they!

Good job everyone!

Mt. Hood Weekend Away

After MUCH deliberation on what would make the perfect weekend away and end to our summer, we went with the Hansen's and the Neff's to Mt. Hood for the weekend. We rented a cabin and headed out Friday morningish. The cabin was super fun and had a hot tub that was the BEST hot tub EVER! We just kinda hung out Friday night, hot tubbed, played the guitar, played a super fun Monoply game (not real monopoly but like Speed Monopoly) and planned out our weekend. The point of the weekend was to be outside and ACTIVE! And boy were we active! We woke up Saturday and got ready to head out on our bikes. I look at Cory and say, "sooo... you know where we are going, right?" (noone wanted to spend the day getting lost, right?) Cory looks at me and says, "Uh huh!" with this look that I can only describe as "the Cory Look", for any of you that know Cory, you know what I mean. (the look that says, "Aw, lets just fly by the seat of our pants and see where we end up at!", ya you know the one!) Pretty much everyone saw that look, at least Amanda, Sun and I, and said, in unison, "get a map!" Billy and Cory pulled out a map and figured out exactly where we were going. (to Cory's credit, he did have a really good idea, we just felt alot better after it was actually mapped out and Billy was in on it!) So we head out. Note to self... when you are in the mountains and you want to go on a bike ride you are going to either be going UP or DOWN!!! NOT FLAT!

We head up Lolo Pass, just as we make the turn we see about 20 or more other cyclists sitting on the side of the road finishing their ride, so we figure its going to be a great ride. And it was! It was uphill for a long time, but very few cars and it was just BEAUTIFUL... it ran, I guess parallel to Mt. Hood, which is so pretty.



Taking a quick break during the ride...


Had a GREAT ride. We were feeling so good and just loving being outside. We did 25 miles and then got back to the cabin and thought we should practice "transitioning" since the triathalon is in 2 weeks. We put on our running shoes and just went out and did a quick mile to see how it felt on our legs. Then we had lunch and decided it was time to hike. We head out again to Ramona Falls. (A quick hike)


... Or not so quick... It was pretty long, a couple of hours at least. But another super fun time. I was just enjoying being out and about, with friends and no other responsibilities. We didn't have to do anything by any certain time or worry about anything else. We hiked up to the Falls, took a quick picture and headed back down, trying to beat the sun going down. We stopped at one point to get all of the sand out of our shoes, and just sat there and talked for 1/2 hour. I felt like I could've stayed there all night.

I've never really thought much about loving the outdoors, but there is something about being out there without all of the distractions that I really do love. By the end of our 4 hour hike, after our 1 mile jog, after our 25 mile bike ride, I can't tell you how good it felt to go soak in that hottub again! What a way to end the day.

Sunday, we got up and took our time getting ready. Jacob really wanted to bike up Mt. Hood, so he headed out early to knock it out before we had to head back. And knock it out he did. 15 miles to the base, and then UP for 6 more miles, and when I say UP, I mean UP! It was so steep! That climb is CRAZY!!!! He did awesome though and loved it. We met up with him, about 1 mile from the top. We drove up and met him as he finished and then we talked Billy into heading down with him. (which apparently isn't as glorifying to descend the mountain if you haven't suffered through the climbing of it, but they flew down that mountain together.) They headed off and we didn't catch up to them until about the last mile. They were going down faster then we were most of the descent. CRAZY GUYZ! (we try to not let that freak us out)


Oh, and the BEST part was... we stopped in Hood River to do some shopping, and the very FIRST store we go in I see this cute Yellow Purse. I fell in love with it! But, I am trying to be more careful about spending money and not buy EVERYTHING I want. I decide I'm gonna shop around and make sure thats what I want the MOST! We go to a few more stores and I keep thinking, "Nope! I want that purse!" After about an hour, and having lunch we decide to head back. I say I'm gonna go grab that purse. I go into the store and... ITS GONE! "What the ?" are you kidding me? Its only been an hour! I go ask the clerk, Jacob is with me, by the way, and she says "Oh yea, its gone. Some lady came in a bought it!" I was so disappointed. I go out of the store, totally complaining to Jacob. "That's what I get for trying to be frugal. That's why I just buy what I want when I want it! I should've just gotten it!" blah blah blah, you get the idea, right? I get to the truck and Amanda's like, "where's the purse?" I told her it was gone and I was so BUMMED! I got into the truck, still peeved, I might add, and there is the purse! Sitting in the back of the truck.

Seriously? My AWESOME WONDERFUL AND THOUGHTFUl HUSBAND, had RAN back to the store while we were in another store (Amanda kept trying to get me to try on a wet suit, and I REALLY didn't want to, but I did and didn't really think much of it.) Then while I'm trying it on, Jacob pokes his head in the dressing room and his forehead is DRIPPING with sweat and I thought, "that's odd that he is sweating so much. He must be REALLY Hot!" Unbeknownst to me, he had ran back to the store and bought the purse, hid it in the truck and told the sales lady to play it off when I came back to buy it, cuz I'd be back! I have to say, I love the purse SO much more since he bought it for me then if I'd bought it and then felt guilty for spending the money on another purse. I TOTALLY LOVE IT!!!! I'm pretty sure Billy thought I was crazy for how exited I got over it. Who knew?

We had so much fun! Thanks Neffs and Hansens. It was fun to drive up with Neff's and chat and spend more time together. I'm so grateful for fun friends that we are able to do stuff like this with. There aren't alot of couples who do all of the same things and like to be so active and are fun to hang out with. We are so glad we've become such good friends! You guys are the BEST!

Birthday Cake

So I love making Birthday Cakes... I don't really know why... it takes FOREVER and you are so worried its not gonna turn out... Jacob asked me after watching me work on different parts of this cake for 3 days why I like it... The only thing I could come up with is I love to see the finished product and know that I tackled something outside of my comfort zone. Tiff and I did this one for Paige's birthday this year. I couldn't believe it actually turned out. We made it early just in case it didn't and she'd have to make another one. But I think it turned out awesome. I didn't actually see it the next morning at the party, I guess some of the tier things fell off, but at its best right after we finished it here's what it looked like...

Boys at River

I'm having a problem uploading pictures... Grrr... Here are some pics I took of the boys down at the park the other day... I wanted new pictures for my wall and kinda knew what I wanted but didn't want to waste anyone's time so I just took the boys out one afternoon and we played around... post of the finished wall yet to come...
I just LOVE this picture...

Silverwood

We did our annual trip to Silverwood this summer with the Ostlers. It was a ton of fun. We were gonna go for 2 days and stay the night at Stoneridge. But we decided to just go for one day to save time and money. It was lots of fun. We always love to go on trips with the Ostlers. It seems like we all get along really well.
"What goes up...

...must come down!"

Jacob and I and Dan and Stacey Ostler...











Thanks Ostler Family for a SUPER FUN TIME! Sorry about cutting it short. Hopefully you'll still do it again with us!