New Phone

I told you I was slow when it comes to getting new technology things.  Its not that I don't understand them, or like them.  Its that I want to take my time and do my research.  And make sure it is really something that I want/have to have before I spend money on the next big thing that I can never get back.  Or lock myself into some sort of 2 year contract.  So, last you heard, I got myself a new phone back in the summer of 2014.  After 2.5 years, it was about time for a new one.  My old phone was running slower, regardless of how much I took off or cleaned it out.  And, most frustratingly, it would restart itself at random times.  Several times a day.  Most of the time while I wasn't using it.  I would notice all my apps were closed or I would hear it playing it's "opening song" off to the side somewhere.  So...  I did some research with my loving brother again, and came up with this bad boy.  

It is an LG G5.  Now, this ain't no paid advertisement, I'm just telling you what I got!

I picked this one because my brother told me to.  Sorta :)   I had a Samsung previously, and so the operating system would be similar enough that I could get the hang of it.  And because my phone was so old, pretty much anything had a better/faster processor.  But, mostly, I picked this one because it has some pretty cool cameras!  A 16 megapixel in the back, as well as another camera on the back that is wide angled, and a third one on the front.  I have used it a bit, and while it does take pictures that are light years ahead of my previous camera, it doesn't hold a candle to my DSLR baby.

I picked it out before I had ever held it.  Its significantly bigger than my last one, but there didn't seem to be any help for that.  They all were.  But, since I hadn't actually touched the thing, I held off getting the case until I knew THAT was the one.  I went to the store, played with it for a bit, and bought the sucker.  As soon as I came home, I ordered a case off Amazon (significantly cheaper than those in store) and paid the extra $3 for one day shipping.  I wanted to protect that sucker!  Unfortunately, the shipment got lost or didn't get marked for one day shipping, so I didn't get the case.  Day 2, it did come, but it was wrong.  It looked like it had been used (there were micro dents and scratches on it already) and looked cheaply made.  So I returned it (and got my one day shipping fee back) and immediately ordered another one.  With one day shipping again.  

That night we went over to the Hill's house to fix the go cart.  And we were successful!!!  And I took out my phone, which happens to have a cool camera on it, and took some pictures of the kids riding around and having fun.  When it was my turn, I rammed my phone in my back pocket (sometime I never do), and jumped on.  On my second lap around, I suddenly saw something black and shiny go flying.

 You guessed it!  My brand new, shiny, 2 day old phone was a wreck.  Not only did the glass get cracked, but some of it was missing.  And the body had dents all around it.  Yay for 2 day old phone!!!

Sad day.  I cannot tell you how frustrated I was at myself!!!  The good news is I had insurance on it.  And, even better, I hadn't put in a claim in over 12 months (I actually have never damaged a phone before this) so the deductible was cut in half.  I went through the insurance process which was, thankfully, much easier than I thought it would be.  And they overnighted a new phone to me the next day.  When my new case also arrived.  And, while I don't know if the case would have allowed the phone to come out completely unscathed, it certainly would have protected it a little bit.  Thanks Amazon.  Thanks a lot.

And that is the story of my new phone. 

The End.

Go Cart, Part Uno

Hubby always talks about the little buggy they had while he was growing up.  He used it to ride all over those acres down at Pa's house.  When he grew up, it stopped working, and they gave it away/sold it because hubby was old enough to drive the actual cars.  Fast forward a little bit, and grandchildren enter the picture.  Cousin Boy Band is older than Kari by 5 years, so he was ready first.  And somehow or another, Pop came into ownership of this little go cart.  I can't remember if he found it on the side of the road, or bought it for cheap because it needed repairs.  And, being Pop, he figured out it needed a $5 part, and we were on our way!  Fast forward a few more years, and it was time to buy the cart a new engine.  Hubby, Josephine and Pop worked on it one weekend they were all together, but discovered it would need a few things.  So, we brought it home to finish fixing it up.  First, we had to take the new engine back off.  Kari is always happy to help in instances like this.

 Even if she might need a little bit of guidance.

 Kelsey, on the other hand, is always happy to supervise.

 Then, each of the kids took turns sanding off the rust and debis.  Then it was my turn to step into the picture.  Disclaimer: I hate spray paint.  I always seem to get runs and drips and miss places.  I went into the part of the project with trepidation.  I just bagged off the wheels and got out the spray paint.  First a coat of primer that seemed to go well.  I thought, maybe I wouldn't screw this up too badly.  Then it was onto the color.  The kids voted on neon green!  As you can see, it didn't go flawlessly.  But, I never seem to get great coverage either.  Oh well, good enough I suppose.

We took it back to Pa's house a few weeks later where Hubby mounted the engine back on and put the seat cushions back.  And connected the chain.  Then it was time to add the gas....

 ...And crank that bad boy up!

I was going to be the first to ride it (because theoretically I was small enough to fit and knew how to drive).

I saw theoretically because I am still a bit too big for it.

 And unfortunately, things didn't work out right.  We broke the chain, and the clutch seemed to be malfunctioning. 

 So, no matter how prepared the kids were...  no one else got to ride it. 

Its a good thing it looks pretty!

Don't worry.  The story isn't finished.  I told you that story though...  to tell you tomorrow's.

Vacation Hangover

We took a week off for Thanksgiving break last week and went down to Pa's house.  

And now getting back into the swing of things is hard.

So, I'll be back tomorrow.  I'm not promising I'll have all my ducks in a row, but they may be in the same state :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

My heathens are home this week for Thanksgiving break.  In an effort to stay sane, I will not be posting.  But remember to be kind, be grateful, eat lots, and take naps!

Bum Bum Bum!

Another one bites the dust!

This dude is kinda scare of losing teeth.  So when they get so loose he will let someone else pull them out.

 And, usually, it only takes a tiny bit of effort to pull it out.

 And then he is happy and all is right in the world because he will get another dollar.

 In fact, a few days after this picture was taken, he woke up with "something in his mouth".  Turns out, it was a tooth he didn't even know was loose.  So loose, that it fell out on its own in his sleep. 

 Thankfully, he didn't loose it or swallow it, and was able to profit from it still.

Camping Concoction

Sometimes, I think it is humorous that my husband spend more time on Pinterest than I do.  He also enjoys organizing more than I do (though once it is put away, he's not always that great at continuing to put it away).  So when it came time to get ready to go camping, hubby already had some organizational ideas that just needed execution.  The first thing he did was buy a fancy tool box that has all kinds of compartments, and put some stuff away in there.  That left all our kitchen stuff needing a place.  Pinterest to the rescue!  Hubby had already scoped out a chuck box and had been working on a plan.  I am always amazed at his ability to draw straight lines and to see in 3D.  This is his cut list, to show how he was going to get everything out of one sheet of plywood. 

We went ahead and upgraded to marine grade plywood.  The idea being that if this particular "appliance" would spend most of its workable life outside, we wanted to make sure it was up for the challenge.

 And then it was time to cut everything down to size.  With appropriate hearing protection, of course!

 Once hubby had done a rough cut with his hand saw, he trimmed them to the appropriate size and shape with his more exact table saw.  There was a great deal of router-ing to be done.  Hubby wanted everything to fit together and help support each other.  And all the dividers on the inside to be supportive as well.  Then it was up to me and my good friend "orbital sander" to get everything nice and smooth.  Once that was done, we again up graded to exterior grade, clear polyurethane. And put two to three coats (sanding in between) on everything.

 The top actually did not get any poly as hubby was planning on putting formica on top.  When the top unfolds it is basically a kitchen countertop.  What better than formica?

 Couple of hinges here...

 And Voila!  (mostly)

 Here is the master with his work unfolding.

When it is all unfolded, there is a place for everything.  And the countertop is completely usable!

 It sits on this nice bottom, which raises the box up to a nice height for working on.  And it conveniently fits on top of the box when it is all folded up to make for good mobility.

 But, of course, a master's work is never done.

And we may or may not be working on the same box for the rest of our lives :)

Forgot

I plum forgot to post yesterday.  And the last project of Kari's isn't quite done yet.  Plus, the computer is still being weird, and only working at certain angles.  So, I'll post for a few more days and then turn it in over Thanksgiving when I wouldn't use it anyway.  See you tomorrow! :)

Doah!

We have one more project to finish in Kari's room.  And then you need a final reveal.  I was hoping to post that last project today, but....  its not finished yet.  So gimme a day or two, and hopefully I'll catch back up :)

Bolster You Up!

So now there is green on pretty much every wall.  But we wanted to do some sort of accent pillow to bring the green down onto her bedding as well.  We looked at the other pillows already there, and decided to do a bolster pillow.  Now, I am not a sewer.  Correct that...  my friend calls them seamstresses!  I am not a seamstress.  So I think about things in crafting terms.  You cut.  You glue.  You done.  So I thought of a bolster pillow as a simple cylinder.  Kari and I even got to do some algebra to figure out the circumference  of the bowl we were tracing so we could find out how long to cut side.  

And then, pretend I took pictures of Kari sewing the long straight seam of the cylinder.  And that we took pictures of the gazillion pins it took to make the cylinder and the circle line up right.  (Remember, I am a crafter and not a seamstress.  So they just lined up right.  Ish.) 

And then it was time to stuff.

We were both a little bit surprised by how much stuffing it took to make the pillow good and firm.  Like, I had to go get a whole other bag!

And then, some teeny tiny hand stitching to close the hole, and.....

Voila!  A little green for the bed!

I never thought I would be the type of person to have useless pillows on the bed that do nothing but get moved from the bed to the floor and back.  But there you go.  Green, green, everywhere!

You Can Never Have Too Much Storage

Another rather large project for the room was a custom built topper for the dresser Kari has had since she was a baby.  It was a changing table and then just a plain dresser.  We made her some shelves a while ago to solve some of her storage issues.  But they were very specific to the space, so we left them there.  We actually left the dresser for Kaitlyn to use, and pulled out Kaitlyn's dresser.  They are pretty much exactly the same, so, no harm, no foul.  Again, I drew something that looked about right in my head, and then gave it hubby.

He took the "vision" and took some measurements.  

Then snip snap with the saw and some MDF and away we go!

The glue up process was a pretty extensive.  Hubby assures me that if he had more clamps, it would have been better.

And it was off to paint!  This turned out to be a fairly intense project!  There are so many corners and edges and planes!   Upside down, right side up.  Unfortunately, we weren't careful enough in some places, and we got some drips.  So we had to scrap them down, sand them off, and start again.

We had to be a bit inventive to get it up off the floor...

But we were both happy when it was finally done!

Then it was on to the back!  The original design called for white shelves, but with green backs (so we could get the green on that wall).  Hubby was super smart and had us paint them separately.  And, boy am I glad.  The shelves themselves were pretty paint intensive.  I can't imagine throwing the green in there too!

We also painted the drawer pulls with the same green.  There were originally multicolored to match her nursery.  I also covered those with a coat of clear acrylic sealer, because I knew they would be handled so much.

This is the before dresser picture.  Where I am making her clean it off with a magic eraser.  (I know I am late to the party, but those things are pretty magic!  Seriously!  How do they even work?!?)

And a progress shot.  Again, we didn't want to attach to top to the bottom, since at some point she may want to change it.  But we did attach it to the wall using some simple L brackets.  And we turned them so you can't even see them!!!

This is her fully moved in picture!  I love the green in the background!  I love that she has a bazillion shelves to mix and match and play with!

And she loves that she can fit in that tiny space between the wall and the dresser.  Weirdo.