Road Trip Prep - Part 1

We are a few days out from our vacation - a road trip to Las Vegas and the Zion National Forest in Utah. This is mostly certainly a road trip for us - it's over a six hour drive to Vegas alone. With three kids, I have to take every precaution to ensure we are prepped and ready to hit the pedal to the metal.

And while I will focus heavily on preparing for the actual trip itself, I thought I would jot down some thoughts on prepping the HOUSE for us being away. If nothing else, as a great reminder of all the things I need to check off of my virtual, in-my-head, list. 

1. Clean the house. From top to bottom and then side to side. 
• This is for obvious reasons, right? Especially if we are having someone come in and watch the dogs, but also because if anything, God forbid, were to happen to us or the house while we are away - we don't want people to know the truth. ;) 
• We worked together for this house cleaning attempt. Working in one room, then the next. That way there was no bickering about one teenager working harder than the other (when we know that's a joke!). Also, it guarantee's that we completely hit each of the rooms in the house before we leave. 
2. Locate (beg!) and Prep dog sitter. 
• We have two lovely dogs; Ellis and Olive. They are both pit-bull mixes. My parents were charged with taking the dogs until their backyard was overrun by bees. We figured to be safe, we'd better find someone else to care for our babies while we are away. Our neighbor's daughter, Emily, volunteered earlier last month. We decided to reminder her about that. ;) Besides, we watched their pups when they were away a bit back. Emily loves animals and our girls love her - match made in doggie heaven.
• We have NEVER had anyone in our house when we were not there. NEVER. It's weird. I know people do it all the time, house sitters, house cleaners, et all.  Marcos and I are kind of private people. And probably too paranoid. We don't have an option though, if we want to go on this trip. 
• We have an alarm system, so we gave Miss Emily her own code and will have her over before we leave to play with the doggies and also learn where everything is at and how to use the alarm system. 
• Emily is 14 and very mature for her age, but I still worry about locking up, setting the alarm, and being super careful. I am a mom, I worry about this stuff all of the time. Why should it be different now?!
3. Water, Gas and other utilities. 
• We are going around the house, before we leave, and making sure everything is turned to OFF and that everything that isn't a necessity is UNPLUGGED. 
• This includes COMPUTERS.
• We will make sure that all of the knobs on the stove are OFF.
• I think I became MORE paranoid when we bought a house with gas for heating, the dryer and for our stove.
• We will also be raising the temp on the thermostat for the upstairs A/C, but leaving the downstairs at a cool 78*. 
4. Mail and deliveries.
• Our mail is delivered to our shared, locked mailbox. We won't get enough in five days to worry about it. So we will leave it. However, if you have a mailbox out front, where the general public can access it, I HIGHLY recommend calling the USPS and putting a cease fire on your mail for the time you are away.
5. Stage, stage, stage the outside. 
• This means that the lawn needs to be mowed, the front swept and the chairs dusted off and pillows fluffed. Just like if we were home. 
• Thankfully, we already have automatic landscaping and garage coach lights that turn on at dusk and off at dawn. Those are the best things to have - and really cheap to purchase at Lowes or Home Depot. 
• Move cars into the garage and make sure they are locked. Take your keys with you. 
• If there is a fire or something, your neighbors or pet-sitter won't have time to find the keys and move the cars. They need to focus on themselves first, dogs second. Cars are insured.
6. Stage, stage, stage the inside. 
• Only keep enough light on in the house for the doggies and pet-sitter. You don't want your pet-sitter to walk into a wall or have to worry about which light configuration to go with each visit. 
• Keep the blinds closed and make sure the windows are all LOCKED. 
• We keep our blinds closed during the summer months anyway, so it's not a big deal for our house.
7. Decide on an emergency contact. 
• My parents get this job, since they can't officially take the dogs. But if there is an emergency, they are close enough to get over here and remedy the situation.
• Ensure that your closest neighbor and the pet-sitter have your emergency contact's information.
• In this day and age, we will be accessible by cellphones and emails, so we will know immediately if something is wrong. We just may not be close enough to do anything about it.
8. Trust a neighbor. 
• Our neighbors right next door to us are the ones we trust. Their daughter just so happens to be Miss Emily, the pet-sitter. :)
• And he, Mr. Chris, is 5-0. Win/Win. 
• And she, Ms. Jen, knows how to karate chop. I hope.
• They know we will be gone, so they will be on the lookout for creepy weird guys lurking around the place.
9. Don't trust anyone else (kinda).
• You'll notice I didn't say WHEN we are leaving. Or when we are coming back. That's part of not trusting anyone else. I am sure my friends on FB or in CyberSpace aren't planning to ransack my under-roos drawer while I am gone, but you never know.
• I watch too much 48 Hours: Hard Evidence and Dateline, sorry.

Whew. And that's only HALF of the prep. Next time, I will chat about actually packing, purchasing and pushing the kids into the van to start our road trip! Fun, fun, fun!

There are no words...

Vacation [on a strict budget] is BOOKED.

For months now, we've been researching vacation spots. What was first supposed to be a trip to Mt. Rushmore, turned into a road trip to Chicago. While I, admittedly, would have preferred a staycation, similar to last year, the husband was extremely for getting away.  While we did have fun here, here and here and here and finally here, I don't think I am really rooting for the beach this year.

Also... it's June/July. Always a tight time in our budget. Plus, school starts in about a month (Aug. 6), I have back to school clothes and supplies for THREE children this year (a first!). I was not ready to spend money.

They wore me down, those crazy people I share a house with. But, I was smart. I KNEW we could drive to Vegas in 6 hours and I knew that we could get a hotel room for super cheap.

I have a co-worker/friend in Las Vegas and she was able to give me some family friendly ideas for us to do for free (like M&Ms World) or for cheap.

We also plan on taking a day trip to the Zion National Forest in Utah - and hopefully get ourselves up to Salt Lake City. We've never been - so I think it would be a great experience for the kids. And the perfect opportunity for me to practice my photography skills. I seem to do MUCH better out in the wilderness than in my house or shooting my kids.

We will be spending five days in Vegas. I've been ONE time; we literally drove down the strip, and back out through Henderson. lol... Maybe 30 minutes total?!

This time we are STAYING. At the Stratosphere. The rates were CRAZY good. And it's not so far from Phoenix, we can make it on a tank of gas.


Btw. When I told the kids we were going to Vegas, I mentioned that we should try to get the Hugh Hefner suite at the Palms. Isabel stared at me blankly.

I said, "You know - the Girls Next Door?!"

Blankety Blankness

"Kendra?!"

"OH!!!" Isa said. "You mean their father?!"

lol. She thought that Hugh was their FATHER. I had to explain that he was their BOYFRIEND.

"Gross."

Donut Pillows in under 5 Minutes

I've mentioned before (too many times to link to) that we live on the outskirts of Phoenix. Way outskirts. And when we bought this house, there wasn't much out here. But a Dunkin Donuts did open up just down the street. And my, over the past two years, it's been so easy to just stop in and grab a box of donut holes. But seriously, the last few times we did that, the donuts were not so desirable. They were HARD-ish.

Today marks Day 1 of our Vacation (maybe Staycation?! We will see) - and I decided to get up and make the kids a treat for breakfast.  Take note - these babies are EASY PEASY!

Here's what you will need. Brand does not matter. ;)

Here's what you do:

We are so still under our five minute mark, people!

My momma taught me how to make these... and the kids LOVE them. You can't official call them donut holes, because 1) they aren't round and 2) they didn't come from the center of a donut. So we settled on Donut Pillows.

Soft. Airy. Perfect.
Don't rest your head on these babies, though... The Cinnamon/Sugar mix is probably great for exfoliating, but is a bugger to get out of your hair. ;)

Checked another space off of the list...

After work yesterday - I decided to go ahead and start painting my hallway leading to the guest bath and office (since the bathroom was drying from its first coat, and all).

This hallway, downstairs, is small, but boasts almost four walls.

 I am putting the board & batten in that small space - I think it would look great from across the room (from the kitchen) and also, it leads into two rooms that also will have (or already has) B&B.

While I love that blue color - we decided on the Perfect Greige for those walls (above the B&B, of course). 

Don't mind those pictures... they are NOT staying in that form, and I am well aware that they are crick-ed. I am going to be purchasing white frames from IKEA like the ones I have in my office (below) and will space them perfectly so that the entire upper walls of that hallway have frames. I want it to be a focal point for all of our candid and school pictures. That will save me from putting them all over the rest of the house! ;)

So, first coat is on. I won't even think about a second coat until the MDF is cut and installed. And then I will use a smaller, smoother roller to go over the entire white space.

OH MY goodness!! I am getting stuff DONE! Feels good!!

Edited to add a daylight picture- not the best, but look at how that first coat already LIGHTENS up the space:

P-V-C spells FUN!!

Pardon the dust - moving things around on the blog today. Having some issues with links, etc. Be up and running again soon! ;)

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Seriously, people. There is nothing more fun and less expensive than PVC pipe. I've seen so many things on Pinterest where this great white pipe was used; from outdoor curtain rods to backyard water parks. You cannot go wrong... which is why I am excited to share with you the following:



This data in this infographic was assembled by Commercial Industrial Supply, a leading pvc pipe and fittings supplier.

Have you done anything especially creative with PVC piping?

Running on Fumes

We start our vacation on Thursday. 12 days off. I cannot wait. Especially since everyone at work knows I am going to be gone, they are working my tail off. I am not complaining, but I am definetly feeling it.

However, that doesn't stop me from working around the house at the same time. I am a multi-tasker. I can create training decks AND do home improvement at the same time.

Ha!

Okay, to be straight... I decided to go ahead and start painting the guest bathroom on my lunch break.

The color is Phoenix Swiss - from Frazee Paint - color match to Behr. It's actually the color of all of our trim work in the house. I actually didn't even think to match the board & batten from the office to the trim work. I was SURE that the Marshmallow paint I picked out would match the IKEA bookcases exactly. And then the paint when on the wall - and it's MUCH brighter than the bookcases, the trim and my closet doors.

 
The Phoenix Swiss is just about perfect. So I will be using it in several places in the house where I have molding going in.

I do not have an after yet, because I still need to add a second coat and then paint the primed MDF boards. And I still need to decide if I am going to add some COLOR on the top portion of the bathroom or make it the Perfect Greige (which is going in on most of our walls).

Decisions, decisions.

In the meantime, for people not supposed to be using the guest bath, there is a whole lot of evidence suggesting otherwise. Tsk Tsk.

RandomGram

I was going through my cell phone... lying in bed this morning. I didn't want to get up.

I found this picture.

Am I in a bathroom?! Taking a picture in the mirror?!

What am I, 16?!

I also found THIS picture. 

 How cool is that?! An old 80s Sheriff's car.

I couldn't get close enough to it to peer in its windows all nonchalontly.

So I have no idea if it was THE Sheriff, or just a deputy who gets to drive a kick*butt car all day.

I love that the pic looks aged and there are no other cars in the shot to prove it was taken last week and not in the 80s. However, here's another shot for to show that it was indeed a recent pic.

And just for some clarity... 

Man, I love random pictures.

One of the Perks of having a Teen-Aged Girl

Isa came down after dinner last night and asked if she could paint my nails.
How could I refuse? I thought, as I glanced down at the chipped neon pink polish that was close to two months old.

She received Seventeen magazine from my parents for Christmas, and the latest issue had a Sally Hansen insert with a ton of different nail styles. She went through her stockpile...and I got black and white stripes.

I love them! =)

She then went and painted her own finger nails. Too cute.

Nic's Room: Route 66

Nic changes his mind almost as quickly as he changes his costumes. We went from a dinosaur room to a Cars themed room. I'd rather not do something soooo commercial, so I've compromised. We will do a Route 66 vintage cars theme. He can still showplace the likes of Lightening and Sally, but the whole concept will be based on Route 66.

I spent a few minutes this morning looking for inspiration - and came up with this mood board.

We are planning on pulling out the carpet in his room, give him something more durable. I was on Home Depot dot com looking through their peel & stick vinyl tiles, thinking that was the cheapest way to go. However, I found their laminate wood flooring to be even cheaper, in some instances.   We are going to alternate colors, give the floors a striped look.

Marcos and I are going to take on a HUGE project - Nic's new built in bed. Now, his room is not LARGE, but I think we will be able to add a nice sized bed and book case/desk against one side of the room. Then he will have the whole other side to play in. Nic switched rooms with Isabel when Abby moved out - and he now has a large walk-in closet. This is where we will house his toys, clothes, etc. So I think the space plan will work out nicely, but I will let you know when I get a chance to actually draw it out. ;)

I definitely would like a vintage map of the United States... it doesn't have to be huge, but they are so cool. Perhaps some old hubcaps and a Ford sign?! And I think a trip to Flagstaff is in order (what?!) to see if we can capture some unique pictures for art work.

I cannot wait to get this room started!!

A Delayed Father's Day Present

Due to crazy things happening in June, I didn't get to spend Father's Day with my dad until dinner tonight. My mom had us over for steaks, baked potatoes, mac n' cheese (for Nic mostly) and salad. Dinner was delish. That girl can cook!

I set out to make something for my dad for a small token of my appreciation. Remember this print I made for my mom for Christmas...?

Well, I thought my dad deserved his own. But smaller. Not that he DESERVED a smaller print, he just doesn't have a ton of free office space.

In Photoshop, I created a new 8x10 layer and got to work. After some serious thought, here's what I came up with:

I used a few different fonts (ChunkFive, Stencil, Impact Label and Cavier Dreams), and stuck with 4 colors (black, red, tan and gray). Using my dad's company's tag line, name and the date it was established, I created a simple subway art.

I was going to frame it in a black frame, but decided that was BORING. Okay, not boring, but predictable. I dug around my craft room and found an old clip board - one I wouldn't mind using. I grabbed some Matte Modge-Podge, a paint brush, and the prints I picked up from Walgreens (TIP!! don't modge podge over regular printer ink, doesn't work; it streaks!).  I used a 30% off coupon and paid $4.21 for two copies (8x10).

After I did a few coats of the modge podge, I decided it needed a little something more. When I was at my brother's house back in October, I borrowed a box of pens.

These are my FAVORITE! Growing up on several Army bases - as an Army brat- they were everywhere! I figured it would be perfect to add to the clipboard.

I found some ball link chain in the husband's garage. I attached it to the pen and then to the clipboard, so that it was hanging in the front. 

The clip still opens, but I told him to just hang it - and use it as an art piece. Not a real clipboard.

Here it is hanging (in my house... his walls are gray - and it will look cool above his desk). I gave him the second copy in case he wanted to frame one.


Simple and easy Father's Day present for one of my special heroes!
This would make a great present for Veterans' Day, too.

He loved it.
I think.
No, I know he did.

Just in Case

Maybe I should change this to the "Nic" blog. I swear, that kid gives me enough material to write about...

I had him put paper towels in the guest (empty) bathroom yesterday morning; we were out.

I got home from running errands around 8pm and went into the guest bathroom and this is what I saw:

"I put two in there, mom, in case we run out again."
Just in case.

Lovely Actions & Pretty Freebies

I love finding new blogs; especially pretty ones like Maybemej. She has no idea who I am, or that I am writing this post, I just wanted to share her talents. Especially since I just downloaded a SLEW of them.

For FREE!

Can't beat that?!

She has links for PS actions... in addition to her own layout work.

I was playing around with some of the actions for Photoshop (which are actually from a 3rd party) - and my pictures from our trip up North a few weekends back... and I love them.

Here are some more...

Bottom left is the original, straight out of my camera. Pretty. But I also love what the actions do.
And of course, the photo book pages are to die for.

As I've mentioned, I added her link to my sidebar... I know I will be using a ton of her elements in the near future! They are just so pretty!!

Check out her blog!! She has the cutest twin boys.

What did I do to deserve this kid?!

And I mean that in a good way, I think?!

Our guest bath is right next to my office. It's currently empty (reno in process)... and Nic has figured out if he sings, it ECHOS.

So, he's in there doing his thang and all of a sudden I hear him singing 'you might think I'm foolish (my life would suck without you, Kelly Clarkson, right?)



and then he remixes it with 'you might think i am crazy' (the cars).



Finally, when he's done with his concert, he leaves the bathroom and I hear him say, 'come on you, nobody puts baby in the corner.'



--- help?!?!?