Friday Night with Friends

We had Grandma and Grandpa watch Samuel so that we could go out with friends in Louisville and see the Smithereens in concert. Obviously, it wasn't a very large venue, but it was a nice show.

Before they started playing their few popular songs, we headed over a few blacks and had BBQ. Really good BBQ.

After the main concert, we walked over to an area where a band was sent up and, for being so young, they were pretty good.

I hope that we sent another night like this with our friends.

Recent Injury

Our poor little kiddo, Samuel had a boo boo.

While riding in a kid-friendly trail with Grandpa, he shifted his weight to straighten out the seat cushion and the train hit a bump, sending his cheek into the side of the car.

It doesn't look like much, but during the next few days it turned into a nice shiner. It never really bothered him, though.

I won't show you that photo. I don't want you to think that we did it to our own kid. :)

New Basement Areas- How to Reuse Kitchen Cabinets

Source: http://kt.realmdigital.com/tb/ken/remodel/

I wish that our laundry room wall looked this good when we moved in. There wouldn't have had to be as much done to get it ready to paint and hang cabinets left over from our kitchen remodel. Also, our space is nowhere as big as the above photo. I would show you, but I completely forgot to take before pictures. For some reason I also forgot to take daily, progress photos as well. What was I thinking?? Nothing, I guess.
There were large gaps between where the joists needed to be and no area for the dryer exhaust vent if we wanted to hang the drywall ourselves, therefore, I hired a company to come in and "finish" it off that area so that we could make it sturdy enough to determine what we wanted to do with that area to make our laundry room a more usable space.



There were some areas that we were okay if it wasn't completely flush with the new drywall. We didn't want to pay to move any pipes or major electrical outlets. And since this wasn't going to be a "highly visible" space, we were okay with work that just met our bare minimum requirements (just the front and side wall- no ceiling).



The work was originally scheduled for a Saturday/Sunday time frame, but, once we heard about the scheduling of the kitchen cabinets, we moved the dates up for the framing and drywall to coincide.



The company came in on Tuesday afternoon and, unfortunately, didn't complete the painting (to finish off the job) until early evening on Sunday. Unfortunately, they didn't take any precautions with the paint, so the exposed pipes are painted and so are parts of the water heater.



Here is the inspiration that I will be going for when we finish of the rest of the area.

Contemporary Laundry Room design by Dallas Kitchen And Bath B&S Woodworking Inc.


The sink will be on the opposite side, but the cabinets and counter will be on the left.


I also like the baskets underneath the washer and dryer.

Traditional Laundry Room design


I like the table on the left.

Traditional Laundry Room design by Minneapolis General Contractor Stonewood, LLC

We are still in the process of completely finishing off our basement. For me, this meant that we have a nice laundry area and a place for me to do crafts and Sam to do his homework (once he reaches that stage in his life).


I wanted to complete this sooner, rather than later, so we had most of our old kitchen cabinets from our garage installed into our basement and laundry room. We also had the electrical outlets moved up to make them more accessible.


Here are the before shots of the basement and laundry room areas.

And here's what it looks like now.

I'm really excited about all the new storage and the way that the areas are more functional.
There are some more changes needed down the line (painted cabinets in the laundry room, chairs, shelves above the table, etc), but this is a great improvement.

Now, we can start working on the smaller items to start having our laundry room look like the photos above.

Have a great weekend!!

Greeley 4th of July

We headed up to Greeley for their 4th of July parade and the Greeley Stampede.

The parade was pretty much like every other parade that we've seen- cars, clowns, floats, horses, marching bands and color guards.


When we had our fill of that, we headed over to Island Grove Park to see what was going on at the Greeley Stampede. We arrived before the gates opened so we were able to enter for free.

We got Sam a temporary tattoo of Mickey Mouse for $3. He proudly showed it all day, but forced us to remove it during his bath that evening. It would have stayed on for a few days, but his mind was set and he wanted it GONE.

We were able to get him to put on a cowboy hat for a photo, but that's the furthest that it went. He didn't want to wear it long, so we didn't buy him one.

We talked to some carnies who told us about some changes that were made to the dart game (because of some accidents where children were injured) and tried to get us to try their games, unsuccessfully.

Then we went over to the area where tractors were displayed. Sam loved being in the driver's seat.

After all this excitement in the sun, he crashed 5 minutes after we got him into his carseat.

Samuel's New Shoes

On Thursday, I picked up Samuel from school and headed to an event held at the local Road Runner location. We arrived early, so we went to the local Famous Footwear to see if we could get some replacement Crocs since his current pair are in horrible condition. Unfortunately, that location doesn't carry Crocs, but we found something even better.


Thomas the Train Light Up Sneakers

It takes everything that I have to get him out of these shoes. I haven't even been able to take a decent picture with him in these shoes, because he's always running about to activate the lights.

Maybe he will end up being a runner like his Mommy.

Missing Camping Photos

I forgot that we used Brian's phone to take some pictures from our camping adventure. Samuel had so much fun throwing rocks into the lake.

Our First Picnic

Our local pool usually closes at 6pm in the summer (I know, can you believe it), but on Wednesday, the 11th, it stayed open until 8pm for a "Staycation" event.  I made sure that Brian took his trunks to work and packed us some food the night before so that we were set.

I picked up Samuel from his school and we was able to get to the pool just before 5pm. We changed into our suits and jumped in.

Brian showed up around 6:10 and we ate our first picnic (ever as a family) around 6:30. The sun was nice on our backs and the food was great. We had sandwiches, vegetables, coleslaw and drank iced tea.

Sam had the most fun in the lazy riverWe jumped back into the pool after dinner (no we didn't wait an hour) and played for another 25 minutes. Sam had the most fun in the lazy river. Brian liked the enclosed slide. 

We headed home around 7:30pm.

What a great evening!

2012 RNR Denver Half Marathon Training Schedule

Through the group that I joined, I received a training schedule for my next, big event, The 2012 Rock N' Roll Denver Half Marathon.

As you can see, I modified some of it, but it is essentially the same. This is the what I'm going to use (primarily) for my training for the Denver Half in September.

Before then, I do have 2 races; Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon on August 11th and the Rock N' Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon on September 16th (6 days before the RNR Denver), so it looks like I'm going to have to adjust some of the distances later this summer/fall.

Long Run Saturday

I belong to a group that goes out weekly for long runs on Saturday mornings, Runner's Edge of the Rockies. I was able to attend this past Saturday's group run, because it was Brian's turn to take Samuel to Occupational Therapy.

We met at 6:30am at the Runner's Roost location in Lakewood, about a 40 minute drive from me. It was definitely worth it. I ran 7+ miles and felt pretty good the entire time. I was also able to purchase an Amphipod hydration belt before my run since my old one broke on Friday afternoon.

After my run, I also purchased a new pair of Brooks Addiction 10 running shoes at a 20% discount through this group. This means that I'm able to take my full price shoes back to the other store that I purchased them.

It was partly cloudy during the run and about 40% humidity. What a nice combination for a run.

What did you do to exercise this weekend?

Bowling With Friends

We did our best, but we were only able to get through 6 frames of our 4 person bowling game at Boondocks last night. Our friends on this bowling adventure were Dana and her son Zachary.

They were so good at sharing and pushing the ball down the ramp together and also taking their turns. I'm so proud of the boys.

We are so glad that they go along so well. I hope that we are able to also get our husbands to come along, too next time.

Kitchen Cabinets Reveal

Once we moved into our house, it became very obvious that the kitchen needed a lot of work. The cabinets were small and the linoleum was horrible.

Many of the cabinets were hard to access, didn't fit all of our serving items, the size was incorrect for the space (there was a lot of empty white space up to the ceiling) and the color was definitely not my favorite.

After having a few contractors come in and offer me estimates on refacing the current cabinets and replacing them completely with a bead board design, the best contractor's idea was to fully replace the cabinets with a cityscape style.

You've seen the before. Here is the after.

The cabinets are now (at least) 6 inches taller all around the room. There is a Lazy Susan that will allow us to have more room in our pantry for organization. The cabinet above the refrigerator is a lot deeper which lets us store larger pieces. We also have an appliance garage (to the right of the stove) for housing items that we want to keep on the counter, but not in full view, like the toaster and blender.

The next part of our kitchen renovation is adding blue glass tiles as a back splash. Due to the items that Brian wants to complete on the house, I better find someone to install the tiles, so it's not 2013 (at least) before it's completed.

Tuesdays Treasures