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Tag Archive for travel man

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

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.

No comments Posted in Around the House, Blogging, Family, Organizing, Recipes, Travel Man

Enough of this Coughing Already

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Raise your hand if your house is suffering from the dreaded “Spring” colds. We do live in sunny Southern California, but when our weather changes so quickly from hot to freezing (anything below 60 degrees in this neck of the woods), we inevitably get some colds. My house has been under the cold and coughing siege for over 10 days now. First the boys got sick, and now Travel Man is under the weather. The cold and sinus part does not seem to be so bad, but the cough that this cold brought into the house is not good. It’s one of those coughs that is annoying, incessant, non-stop, and just drones on until you have a headache. The Momster here (that’s me) had to pull out all of the stops to help the boys get through the coughing. We were using Throat Coat tea, cough drops, sugar-free cough drops for Zach (as he is diabetic), juice, water, and the humidifier. Zach was coughing so bad one night it kept him awake forever.

And now my Travel Man has “the cough”. He is traveling a lot right now, and he was driving to his destinations for a few weeks and then last week he got on a plane to fly to Northern California. He usually goes through a routine of wiping down the airplane seats and trays with Clorox wipes, but he did not do so on this flight. I told him that he let his guard down, because he hadn’t flown for a while and was off of his routine, and then he got “the cold”. Luckily he has a few days of down time to get over the coughing.

For myself, I am running around the house disinfecting everything; remotes, light switches, faucets, bathrooms sinks. I refuse to get sick! I’m doing my Emergen-C, staying hydrated, and getting my rest. This Momster will not be getting “the cough”. Keep your fingers crossed for us. I will keep you posted on our coughing progress. Now I’m off to get more cough drops!

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

Happy Days, Sad Days in the Kitchen.

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Renee Spindle

Last week was my birthday week, and my Wonderful Travel Man got me this really cool Mr. Coffee, Cafe Latte machine. I did not even know Mr. Coffee made this type of machine. This wonderful gadget brews the espresso, and then drips it into the coffee pot where the milk is frothing. The entire process happens in the same pot. It’s amazing! Plus you can make all kinds of flavored lattes, hot chocolates, and sugar-free lattes. I’ll be trying out a pumpkin latte this weekend! I’m looking forward to having my lattes, and saving money with no more trips to Starbucks. Travel Man made himself a hot chocolate earlier this week, and it was creamy, chocolaty and truly delicious. This has been our happy days, this week in the kitchen.

Earlier in the week, probably Tuesday or Wednesday, Evan asked me if I could make him a loaf of bread. So, I told him sure I would make him his own loaf to take home. So yesterday I put all of the ingredients in the bread maker, got it set-up to make our favorite loaf of white bread, and went on about my afternoon. About an hour or so into the process I go to check on how much longer the bread has to bake. I can’t see straight into the bread maker, so I grab the nearest flashlight, and look down in there and see all of the ingredients just sitting there staring up at me, and not mixed one bit! Then Bryan and I realize the bread maker smells bad, like something is burning bad. We open the lid of the bread maker to see what is going on and there is a small fire. We have flames!!! Bryan blows out the flames, and we quickly unplug the bread maker, and it smells terrible. I’m guessing that the yeast got heated up and there is some obnoxious smell coming from the yeast, and the heating element. It was terrible.

We get the bread pan out of the bread maker so it can cool off, and this morning I had to throw my lovely bread maker away. I was advised by Travel Man that I should make no attempts to plug it back in and see if it’s “ok”. So, sadly into the trash it went. I will get another bread maker eventually (hint-hint), but for now my bread making will just go “old school”. I plan to get out my recipes and just make some bread the old-fashioned way, and maybe some cinnamon rolls too. What fun have you had with your gadgets in the kitchen this week? Happy weekend everyone from a rainy, and thundery Southern California.