W.O.W. Results...

WOW I had a great time getting my project done! Moving back into our house with less furniture sure did create a problem - but I came up with some solutions thanks to those who were cheering me on!

Because of this challenge I was able to take 6 large bags of clothes to Other Mothers and get a nice check in return and then I drifted across the street to the Youth Ranch and got a good write off for next years taxes! Thank you Becky for helping me get this done!!!

I decided to up my challenge and do two rooms and I'm very happy with my results. I'm wishing I had a bed frame and dresser but I made it all work!

Here is the before picture of my bedroom... What a mess!!!!

Here is the after picture of my room! So pretty! The red fabric is hiding a white 3 drawer plastic container. I sold my side tables in a garage sale (mistake) and this was suggested to me. I choose red to add a little color since I haven't painted yet. Painting will come on the next W.O.W.

I actually love that the room looks bare and you can see the carpet!

The formal dining room turned office... Oh my!!! Before Picture...

After Picture! I bought some baskets to put things in and I brought my Great Grandmothers desk down for extra storage. All the files got moved to the closet under the stairs.

School has started!

School started for Caitlin last week and I am happy to report that she loves it! This is the first time she has been so excited about going to school every day and she loves how nice everyone is. She is now in 1st grade at Calvary Elementary. I love that it is a Christian school and she has Bible study and Chapel time during the week. She comes with all these wonderful new stories about Jesus. My eyes tear up every time.

Mikayla started on Tuesday and is also enjoying school. She is attending Calvary Pre-school and has a great teacher. She got to take her favorite stuffed animal to school on her first day - what a smart plan! We didn't have any tears the first day but today my little one broke down when I was leaving - it made me want to cry too. But once her teacher walked in Kaylie went to her and dried her tears. She told me tonight she had a good day and is making new friends. So I'm not too worried.

I had a big week too - I started my new job at HP this week. So far it's been going well - no tears from me but I do wish I could bring a stuffed animal. :) Training is always a pain but I think the job will be good. I work for Pat Walker in the High End Laser Printer Department. Basically it's the R&D lab. The hardest part is getting used to seeing computer and printer parts everywhere! It's a bit overwhelming since I don't know much about what these people are doing. Mike would love it, I'm sure.

Since the girls started school and I started working full time our schedules are crazy. I do have a great boss who doesn't need his team in until 9am so I can take the girls to school and Mike picks them up at 3. But with all the after school activities...Music class, cheer leading, soccer and dance - I pray we find the time to smell the roses.

At home in Boise

It's been awhile since we've posted any updates, so let me see if I can summarize what we've been up to since we've moved back to Idaho in February.

Life has changed so much since we got back. I have to learn to slow down a little, yet I thrive being busy. I think we've been trying to make up for the time away so we packed our summer schedule.
Caitlin started soccer this Spring and has actually
already started fall soccer too. She did great her first season. It was fun to watch her grow and get into it - she was scoring goals almost every game toward the end and in the final game she scored two goals!


She also celebrated her 6th birthday in June as
well as her graduation from Kindergarten.
She wanted a luau party so we invited some of her friends to our new house and had a wonderful day. We live next door to the neighborhood park so the kids were able to go back and forth between our house and the playground.

Mikayla has been doing great as well. She decided she wanted to take tennis lessons this Spring so I signed her up. She loves playing tennis! She will be better then us by the time she is 6! She will be starting Pre-K next week at Calvary Pre-school.






We went on a wonderful Vacation with my parents to Disneyland in July. It was so much fun - we were all completely worn out by the end of the trip. We spent 3 days at Disneyland and one day at Sea World. The girls were amazing - they kept up with us all day and then would crash at dinner. I don't think they ever did make it through dinner without falling asleep. I don't know how Disney does it but they do a great job with making us all feel like kids!






We also took the girls camping for the first time. They had a great time but Mike and I didn't get much sleep. A storm came through and the winds gusts were about 35 miles an hour off and on during the night. We could hear trees falling in the distance and something was walking around outside our tent! We made it through the night and when I opened one of the tent windows in the morning I got a close up look at what was keeping us up - a cow! All night I thought it was a bear, since they have been seen in the area but no it was a big cow. After breakfast we took the girls on a mile hike around part of the lake and I just felt so blessed. We would stop and look at the trees, which now seem bigger then they were before we moved to Texas and look at footprints in the dirt and talk about what animal left them. It was a wonderful peaceful moment and I realized how lucky I am to live in this beautiful state and have such a great family.

On top of all of this we've had visits from our families that live out of state, swimming lessons, lots of BBQ's and Mike and I went to my Up With People reunion in Arizona in August. It was a great weekend and I am so glad that my hubby was able to meet some of my UWP friends. We also added to our family this summer. We got a dog in July - he's a Golden Lab named Cowboy. He is a great dog and can be trained quickly. Mike works with him daily and we are already to a point of being able to take him on a walk without a leash. He is a great addition and the girls love playing with him.

I think that is a pretty good update from us for now. I will try to stay more current.
Take care,

Andi Deely

I'm a lumberjack and thats ok.

I had some fun cutting down a few trees this last weekend. We had a couple of trees hit by lightning and one was dead and the other one was dieing. So I decided that they needed to come down and Andi wanted a few more to come down so that we had some more room to play in the backyard. So the following pics are me taking down one of those trees. I got to buy a chainsaw.. oh yeah!


 

October Fun!

We had Carol Warren over this weekend and had a great time going to a place called the Oil Ranch and the next day we went to The Old Time Christmas Tree Farm. I didn't realize how slobbery and long cow tounges were until one was on my hand and leg. Good Times. It was lots of fun, check out the pics:

October 2006

Sep 28, 2006 - 31 Photos

Click on the picture for the album.

Texas Weather

Here are some pics of some lightning I have taken. Lightning is hard to capture well, at least in my limited experience, but these aren't too bad. The last pic is one of my trees that was hit by lightning while I was standing outside in the rain, not cool. The line of no bark is the path of the lightning as it travelled. I was standing outside watching the downpour and I turned around to go into our door. The next thing I know I ear is ringing and my feet are tingling. I was about 30 feet away from the strike, scary stuff. Enjoy the pics.


 

Happy Father's Day 2006

We celebrated Fathers Day at the Woodlands Resort for a wonderful brunch. I don't think I have ever seen so much wonderful food at a buffet. They had oysters and sushi and lamb and so many things I had never seen before. I think it was the best buffet I have ever been to.

We spent the afternoon with Bob and Carol Warren and that was a lot of fun. We will defnitely have to go back and spend more time at that resort, it looks like a lot of fun. With the waterslides and pool Caitlin and Mikayla were both ready to jump in and swim.

Hope to see you all soon.