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Archive for Family

11 Things I was Reminded of During our Home Improvement Week

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Renee Spindle

If you are a follower of my stories you know that Travel Man and are near the end of a project remodeling the entryway of our home. After a few marathon work sessions last week it reminded me that we almost always have a great time together with our projects, and here’s a few reasons why we do:

1. Projects with my Travel Man are fun.

2. We work well together.

3. It is important that I pay attention and know when to leave Travel Man alone to let him think and work. It can be all fun and laughter.

4. Working a project and meeting our deadline is like a well orchestrated dance.

5. I’m a great “sous” carpenter- clean up is my specialty.

6. Planning is everything.

7. Changing the plan when you are actually in the middle of the project can be important. Be flexible.

8. It’s ok with me if Travel Man doesn’t like to paint, because I love to paint!

9. Finishing all of the detail work gives you the greatest sense of accomplishment.

10. The detail work is what makes your project spectacular. This one is still in the works as I am typing this post.

11. I need more exercise, I am seriously out of shape.

As our entryway project comes to a successful close I have to give a big shout out to my wonderful husband. He worked by hard to get a lot of work done in a short period of time. And of course, this week he is back on the road. That’s our life, planning and executing, and trying to get things done on short notice. I will have pictures a little later this week, remember patience is a virtue my friends.

No comments Posted in Around the House, DIY Projects, Family, Travel Man

Home Improvement Projects

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Renee Spindle

My wonderful Travel Man has had a few days at home in a row which has been a rarity since the beginning of the year. We decided to take advantage of this week, with him at home to get some home improvement projects rolling along.

For most of this week we have been texturing and painting the walls in our entryway, installing new flooring, and getting all of the trim work completed. We are down to the wire and will be finishing up tomorrow morning. Travel man is off to Canada on Sunday. This project has been a long time coming, and it is just delightful to see it all coming together. I will post a slide show of pictures once we are completely done.

We have also been putting together a plan to landscape our front yard. Our house sits on a corner lot, the first house on the south side of our street. So we have a lot of front yard going on. We had the front yard graded probably two years ago now, and have just been keeping the dirt free of weeds and in check since then. Putting a plan together with a blank slate is somewhat of a daunting task. You want the grass and plants to look nice, and you don’t want to make a mistake with your plan. This is why we have waited to spend any money on our front yard. We had to have the time to get a vision, agree on that vision, and put a plan in place to execute. That sounds so “Corporate world” doesn’t it?

Anyway, we have been doing so much planning for the front yard, and supply purchasing for the entryway I told my husband one morning this week that I had a dream we were planting in our entryway!! My thoughts were a little mixed up don’t you think? All of this planning an executing has been making my head spin.

The entryway project is coming along so beautifully it is already creating “the domino effect”. You know what I’m talking about. You make an improvement in one area of your home, and it pushes the domino into the next room that needs to be painted or remodeled, which in our case is our living room. And we all know the “domino effect” creates a never-ending “to-do” list. But I love lists so that’s ok.

Watch for my entryway pictures in the next few days. I’m excited to get this project off of the “to-do” list and work on the front yard before it starts to get too hot. Happy home improvement weekend everyone. How’s your “to-do” list going?

No comments Posted in Around the House, DIY Projects, Family, Travel Man

It was History in the Making.

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Renee Spindle

My love of history and my passion for following the game of baseball all converged on one center point last night. It was one of the games that is every baseball fans dream to witness. Last night Travel Man and I, along with our oldest son and his friend attended a baseball game at Angels stadium in Anaheim. It was a great night for baseball. The Angels are our home town team, and have been for over ten years now. It was a Wednesday night game, so the crowd was not huge. It was a crispy, chilly Southern California evening. Travel Man and I had a great view of the field, on the first base side. The boys were sitting field level by the left field, foul pole. We waved to the boys across the stadium crowd a few times, when there was a great play.

Now remember, my description of the game and my experience will be completely different from anyone elses who was there. (That’s why I like to blog) We got to see a bit of history last night. The Angels ace pitcher was on the mound, Jered Weaver. He is in his 6th season with the Angels, and his 2012 record before the game started last night was 3-0. Weaver was dealing with his pitches. By the end of the game he had 9 strikeouts (that’s k’s in baseball lingo). He is a smooth operator on the mound. I just love watching his command of the game.

This game was a hitting fest for the Angels. 15 hits, and 9 runs scored! A great night for the team. But an even better night for Jered Weaver. At the top of the 8th inning Weaver comes out to the mound, with a score of 9-0, the Angels are in the lead. I’m thinking, oh cool he’s going to finish this game out. He had around 98 pitches before this inning started.

He deals the batters once again, three up and three down. This is the moment I realize that Weaver has a no-hitter going. The Angels stay at 9 runs for the bottom of the eighth and at the top of the ninth out charges Jered Weaver. At this point I remember looking at the scoreboard and Weaver started the inning with 111 pitches. For every pitch of the ninth inning the crowd was on its feet. Cheering for each and every strike and out. At the end of the game the Angels had won, and Weaver pitched his first career no-hitter. It was the first no-hitter we all had the good fortune to witness at the stadium. The energy of the crowd was insane. It was the first solo no-hitter thrown by the Angels since June of 1975, that one was thrown by Nolan Ryan.

We will always remember being at this game, as we got to witness a part of the Angels history in the making. Kind of like when you saw Neil Armstrong step foot on the moon, or remembering where you where on the morning of 9/11. This was a completely awesome experience! Congratulations to Jered Weaver, and go Angels!

No comments Posted in Family, Sports, Travel Man

Does your family have any birthday traditions?

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Renee Spindle

I am a traditionalist. I love traditions, and creating memories for family members. There are a few birthday traditions that we have so much fun with I thought I should share them with you.

The traditions that go with the birthdays at our house are numerous and fun. We try to have a theme for the birthday parties, whether you are young or old. Iron Man, Batman, Transformers are some of the recent favorites. My oldest son works at Party City so we get great discounts on the party decorations. This makes for lots of fun decorating the house, which is at the top of my “I love to do this” list. We always hang up some sort of “Happy Birthday” banner. Last summer Evan and I made a pretty cool birthday banner that had lots of construction paper and glitter. We are still using this one for some of the birthday celebrations. Once in a while we get some funky birthday hats to wear. This is mostly for the girls in the family. Lots of fun to wear a crown and be the queen for the day. Oh wait that’s right I’m the queen of my house everyday!!!

Once our theme is in place then it’s just a matter of planning the menu. The birthday person gets to pick their favorite dinner, and what kind of cake they like. A few years ago we had quite a few “Taco Bar” birthdays right in a row. Everyone wanted tacos and nachos for their birthday dinner!!

For my own kids, I have always had some fun traditions. On your birthday morning we wake everyone up early to rush into the birthday boy or girls bedroom for a rousing wake you up rendition of “Happy Birthday to you”, sung as loud as we possibly can.

For a few years Travel Man and I would take all of our kids out on the birthday persons’ actual birthday, and then we came to our senses because it was getting way too expensive. After that we started taking out just the birthday honoree by themselves. That was a fun thing to do. It was great to get some alone time with just the birthday boy or girl.

On my kids’ sixteenth birthdays I gave each of them a journal, and in the first few pages of the journal I wrote my memories to them of the day they were born. I think this tradition started because the kids would always ask about the day they were born, either on or around their birthdays every year. I wanted them to have the memories to last a lifetime.

For the 21st birthdays I make a picture collage for the kids. This is a birth to adulthood collage, a wonderful walk down memory lane. And this year will mark my last collage, as Zach will be turning 21 in July. Oh boo!

We have so much fun when the whole family is together singing happy birthday at the Party House. First we sing a chorus of happy birthday, and there’s always some sort of harmonizing going on. Then we do a second verse where we sing like this;

Happy Birthday to you cha, cha, ca (with synchronized clapping)”, “Happy Birthday to you cha,cha, cha. Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday to you, cha, cha, cha! The cha, cha’s are always accompanied by hand clapping.

I have to check with my mom or my brother and find out how we started singing this way as I just don’t remember. We’ve been doing it this way since my kids were very young. It’s just so much fun. If you’re a newbie at one of our family birthday parties, when we start on the second chorus it’s definitely a surprise!!

Lot and lots of fun traditions can always be expected at the Party House. I have always loved starting up traditions new and old, and look forward to keeping them going strong. The traditions are a great thing to be able to share with your kids, and now the grandson too. And as any Mom would, I hope that the traditions that I have started with my kids are handed down for generations to come.

No comments Posted in Around the House, Family, Holidays

My Domestic Goddess Status – Just an Update

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Renee Spindle

It is almost the end of April, and it has been just about a year since I quit my job in the Corporate arena! My how time flies!! I was crowned by my beloved Travel Man as the Domestic Goddess of our household shortly after I decided to stay at home for a while. Little did I know how much I would love this title. If you follow my stories you know I left my job a year ago to pursue other interests. Here’s a link to my post from last April about my life change-Our Girls Vision Luncheon.

In the past year I have had the opportunity to spend time with my grandson, do lots and lots of baking, do a little bit of sewing ( I want to get more of this done soon!), start and finish some little home improvement projects, take a few trips with Travel Man, try some new recipes, add to our list of family favorite recipes, read more books, and generally have the luxury to just come and go as I please. This has all been so personally rewarding for me. Getting to discover what I love to do again, and who knew that I had a passion for writing. I always felt that I had some stories to tell that people would relate to, but I did not realize how much I would enjoy sharing them.

My Domestic Goddess title was given to me by my loving husband. It is because of his encouragement and support that I am able to do what I want to do. Thanks Travel Man for all that you do.

One of my biggest perils in my new-found title is getting side tracked when I am working on things around the house. Does this happen to anyone else? I have had a few discussions with my sister, who works from home, about this, and she tells me the same thing I am already feeling. If you don’t stay focused on the task at hand you get sidetracked to some other task, and then you have to re-focus to get back to the task at hand. Was that statement too confusing, it made my head spin just typing it. That’s why I am really focusing on my lists everyday. To stay away from the “side tracks”.

Also, I have had the good fortune to just pack my bags and take a few short trips with Travel Man. We went to Reno to visit my parents, and last year I was able to take a long road trip with him from Franklin, Kentucky to home. Lots and lots of fun being on the road with someone who travels for a living.

For awhile Travel Man’s days off were falling during the week, so our “weekends” would be happening on a Tuesday/Wednesday timeframe. No worries for us, we are just able to do what we want to when he is home. Sometimes at Disneyland, maybe out to dinner, a visit to the parentals, some time with the grandson, and hopefully a dinner together with the twenty-somethings.

This has been a great year of re-discovery for me. A big hug and thank you to all of my family for your loving support and guidance. I’m looking forward to more and more new discoveries in this next year, and hope to share the stories with each and every one of you.