Soccer (AKA Summer Catch Up - Part I)

I signed the kids up for way too much this summer. I thought we would get bored and I didn't want to hear about it every single day. But I overdid it. Next year won't be so crazy. We LOVED everything we did, but I think we would have enjoyed a little more time to do nothing.

One of the things the kids did was soccer. Some friends of ours signed up to coach and asked me to help coach since they knew they would be gone some of the time and needed someone to take over. So I did. And I survived it. (At least at first. I felt bad towards the end. I had my second miscarriage and missed most of the last games due to that.) But anyway! Because I "helped coach" they let me sign Jack up even though he's too young. (I later learned why 3 year olds are considered "too young" to play.)

We'll start our tour with a picture of Payson shielding her eyes from the sun and Jack sneezing. Oh!! And notice the back of Jack's shirt! The girl forgot to give me the kids' shirts when I signed them up so I had to run and grab them right before their first game. Of course at that point they only had one size left. Way too big. So before every game we pulled their shirts back and twisted an elastic around it. Jack called it his "tail". Nice.

This day was picture day. Hence the cute hair. :)

Some of the other kids on the team during a practice. Aren't they so cute and tiny?

More of Payson shielding her eyes. Who knows what Jack's doing.

Payson did pretty well for a first timer. Jack loved it every game for the first 5 minutes. And then he was done. He cracked us up every game. Sometimes we'd tell him to run after the ball. He would. But he wouldn't stop running. Several times he just kept going. We just sat back and laughed. Occasionally we'd yell, "Run Forrest!" :) Maybe next year he'll like it better. If we do it next year. Who knows!!

Jack's 1st Day of Preschool

My adorable baby started preschool today!! I'll admit, this event was not so heartbreaking as sending Payson off to Kindergarten all day. Preschool is, after all, only 2 1/2 hours twice a week which provide Mommy with FIVE whole hours of freedom a week! But it is always sad to think of my babies growing up. :(

This handsome guy has been SO excited to start "school" like his big sister. He could hardly wait to inherit her teacher and classroom and to do all of the fun things he had watched her do before. And then the morning came and suddenly he didn't want to go! What?! Crazy boy.

He finally decided that school would be fun when he realized that he got to wear his new school clothes and when Mom bribed him by putting a treat in his backpack for when he got home. :)

Here is my "little" guy walking up to his "classroom". I keep telling him that he doesn't have to pull the handle of his backpack out all the way to roll it so that it rolls rather than nearly drags on the ground, but he assures me that this is how you do it.

This last picture is evidence. Proof that my baby is, in fact, still wittle! He may be growing up, but he's still small enough that his backpack made it near impossible to climb the steps. :)

Of course he had a blast and can't wait to go back on Thursday. And Mom had a nice time too. I think I'm going to get used to this quiet time every once in a while. :)

Getting Healthy Again

Remember this post a few weeks ago? Well, I've actually been doing it! Just haven't had a lot of time to post about it. So just in case you are DYING to know, I'll tell you!! ;)

It's been just over 2 1/2 weeks now. I'm working out several times a week. Not 6 days like I want, but I'm okay with that. I'll get there. I've been pretty good about meal planning and cooking and eating healthy. I'm feeling better and feel like we're starting to get into a real routine with school starting.

There was one week where we up and left on a little getaway for a few days (post on that to come). I gained back a few pounds that week and then spent the rest of the week re-losing them. Bummer, but that's life! An I have to give myself credit for quickly getting back on track as soon as we got home!

Now so far I have lost 8 1/2 pounds. So I'm kind of thrilled! I feel like the first ten are always hard. But after that I start getting into a groove and can just keep going. So this is a great start! I'm looking forward to the next 10 or so pounds because that's when other people tend to start noticing that I'm losing. And who doesn't want to hear, "Have you been losing weight?" when you're trying so hard?!

Anyway, how's everyone else doing?!

Are you ready to be jealous?!

Because I seriously have the prettiest piano ever. EVER.

So we got this piano back in January (I think) for FREE from a guy in Salt Lake. I found the piano on ksl.com and we immediately went to snatch it up before someone else did!! It was a 1903 Cable upright. The piano itself was HIDEOUS! But it was in good shape and played perfectly. And I have been dreaming of a red piano for YEARS, so the finish didn't matter to me too much. We brought her home.

And she sat in the family room. Just sat there. I mean, the kids banged around on her and I played her pretty often, but we never made her pretty. Poor girl.

We finally found a week with no (or just very few) plans to keep us from beautifying her. So we jumped on it! We rolled out the tarp and shoved her million pounds (she's a serious fatty) onto it and started to clean. She was super dusty in her back parts. Nasty cobwebs and debris were vacuumed out and then we scrubbed the rest of her with Murphey's Oil Soap.

Here she is. Waiting to be cleaned. I was not a fan of her finish, but I LOVE her bones.

Especially these columns. Even with that big scratched up corner. I just love all the details!

And she has gorgeous legs!! Just seriously banged up. She needed some cosmetic surgery for sure.

Once she was on the tarp and clean we sanded some of the rougher edges and re-cleaned her. Then it was time to prime!

One coat wasn't quite enough, so we added another. She was looking beautiful already! I told Jason that if this gray primer color had matched our decor I might have left her this way. She already looked beautiful!!

That first coat of red had me a little nervous. She was much brighter than I had anticipated, but we kept going.

After a few coats of red I sanded her edges and areas that might have shown more natural aging.

And then we started to stain. And I started to fall more and more in love with her.

Especially those details that had drawn me to her in the first place.

After just one good coat of poly she was finished! A whole new piece!

After a day of drying we moved her back against the wall and I couldn't stop staring!! She looked so different!! I couldn't believe I was looking at the same piano!

I know I'm no photographer. And colors don't really show as well on camera as they do in person. But trust me! She's gorgeous!! (And she's not so shiny as the pictures appear. I don't know what's going on there.) I can't wait to get her all decorated. The bench that came with her was mismatched and I keep debating on what to do with it. I'm considering upholstering the top and re-staining the rest to match, but the more contemporary lines don't match her curves. So I'm also considering donating her to DI and finding something else entirely. Any thoughts there?

So just a reminder. BEFORE:

AFTER:

Maybe a red piano isn't for everyone. I get that. But I'm completely smitten with her. And she brings me one step closer to being completely finished decorating my family room (which I can't wait to show you!!).

So let me have it! What do you think? Jealous? Or not for you? (Don't worry. I can take it!)