Chow Time!

A few months back I got this wild idea to find an old entertainment center for free on the side of the road or from KSL.com and convert it into a play kitchen.  I found lots of fun ideas online and "pinned" them to my pintrest board so that I could figure out what and how I wanted to do this project.

On January 2, I found a perfectly shaped and perfectly priced (FREE) solid oak entertainment center in Sandy.  Thankfully Andy was home to help me go pick it up.  This thing was HEAVY and I know Kevin is grateful he wasn't home to help Andy get this thing home!

I was so excited to get started on it that I forgot to take the "before" pictures!  DUH!   We got it off the back of our truck and I started deconstructing and sanding it before we took it inside to the basement.

After I had it stripped and in my workspace, I had the hardest time deciding what colors to paint it.  This decision was WORSE than any of the last three kitchens we built!  Who would have thought that would end up being stressful for me!  I originally thought I'd paint it white, but then I remembered how much I liked the Pottery Barn red kitchen set and how neat that might look in the playroom...Then I was afraid that with the yellow walls of our playroom, it might look too much like McDonalds!

I finally decided to paint the frame red and the back wall tan and make the appliances look like stainless steel, hoping I could pull off a good look.

This pic was taken with my phone so it's poor quality, but you can get a feel for how things started.  There was a sliding door on the bottom that I took off and a CD tray in the upper left section.  I also took off the door from the upper left section and reused it for a fridge.

If I would have known I wasn't going to paint it white, I might have used a tinted primer instead of white primer.  I had to use 2-3 coats of primer and then 4 coats of red paint to cover the primer!  That'll teach me not to change my mind, huh?

Ta Dahhhhh!

It still needs a few accessories, but for the most part, it's complete.  I made the curtain and the place mats tonight.

I LOVE how the colors came together!  After all that stress, it was worthwhile!

The picture frame is our kitchen window overlooking the wildflowers at Albion Basin in Alta.  The sink is a dog bowl from Wally World and the faucet cost me a whopping $3 from Habitat Re-Use It.

The burners are wooden disks from Michaels and the knobs for the stove I found unfinished at Home Depot.  Andy used Liquid Nails to secure them for us.  The great pots and pans came from Ikea for $10 and look great in our kitchen.

This was the part that required Andy's help (and the picture below).  He constructed the microwave from scratch and attached it.  It was his idea to add the plexiglass windows to both the microwave and the oven door.  I mod podged the keypad onto the microwave.  Riley was impressed by the fact that I included the buttons with words on them!

The oven door has a magnetic latch so it doesn't fall down and it already had a shelf in this section so we didn't need to add one to it.

This is the fridge door that I attempted and failed at making it magnetic.  I found magnetic primer spray paint at Wally World and had no luck with the paint cans (after 3 attempts I flew the surrender flag).  

The kids LOVE their new play kitchen.  I have eaten so many meals in the playroom it's amazing I haven't gained 10 extra pounds!  Kendall can't get enough of playing house now.  She tells me how her baby made a mess at the table, how baby didn't like her dinner, etc.  Both kids enjoy pretend play and it's great that they can use the kitchen together.  I know Andy's just glad this project is done and he's hoping I don't take on any more like this anytime soon!  It was a rather easy project, but because he's not home much (if at all these days) and I needed him to help with a few parts, it took us a few extra weeks than I anticipated when we started.  I'm still hoping to find an old phone to hang from the side wall and maybe a chalk board and a towel rack for her dish towel...

Family SKi Day At Brighton!

We've been trying to get all four of us on the slopes together for over a month now!  Someone is usually sick or Andy has to travel over the weekend for work.  We braved the crowds on Presidents Day to take everyone to Brighton for the day.  We bought the $35 Majestic/Explorer lift ticket.  You can get a long green and a few different combinations of blues off of Majestic so it was a perfect choice now that Kendall has outgrown her beloved Chickadee at Snowbird.  I have a hard time paying $63 for Snowbird just to do greens with her, but the variety would be nice.  Maybe we'll do it before the season ends so she can enjoy Baby Thunder and the Mini-Miners Camp through the woods with Riley.

Here's the video and some pictures I put together from our day.  Sadly Riley's helmet camera didn't work properly so we didn't get much video from him.  I'm hoping it was an issue with the batteries.  It would turn on, but wouldn't stay on for very long - maybe 30 seconds or so.  Guess that means we need to go again soon to see if we can get some good recordings!

The first time all of us on a lift together!

What a gorgeous day for hitting the slopes!  This is what we call a "blue bird" day and the fresh powder was a bonus!

Eating lunch together in the lodge - what a great chance for us to spend some quality time together!

I know it appears we're doing a lot of skiing this winter - but sadly, I've only skied once for myself this year and that was in the beginning of the season and it wasn't in the best of conditions.  It was icy then because we hadn't got much snow.  Kendall has been skiing almost weekly.  I want to make sure she continues to improve on her skills.  She fights me from time to time on doing turns, etc. but she CAN do them and when we make a game of it, she does a great job.  I started trying to teach her a "hockey stop" the other week, but she wasn't in the mood, but she's getting closer to it each week!  

Finally Able to Sled!

We finally got a substantial amount of snow last night (and more on the way tonight).  After church we broke out the sleds and I took the kids sledding while Andy finished up a few things for work.  Andy has the day off tomorrow for President's day so we're taking the entire family to Brighton to ski for the day.

Here is a video I made from our afternoon on the sledding hill:

After sledding Andy and Riley decided to use the Snowman Kit that Riley received from Santa.  Here he is:

Riley informed me that we should have cleaned up the dog poop before it snowed.  Nothing like rolling up a big snowball and finding a surprise!

More Powdershots!

Last Thursday I took Kendall to Snowbird to practice skiing without her edgie wedgie.  Here are the Powder Shots from that day:

Check her out - looking over her shoulder while she skis!  I'm always afraid she'll run into someone or something!

Following mom while weaving through the cones

Love her little "pizza"

My little Snow Bunny and Daddy's little Powder Hound

One More Kendallism

Today she said, "Hey mom!  Darth Vader is going to play the 'pa-nano'!"  She was trying to say 'piano' but it didn't come out quite right.  You don't want to know why Darth Vader was going to play a piano though...it was really a guitar, but she obviously hasn't learned her different instruments yet!  ;)

Goodbye JoePa - A tribute to Penn State's Joe Paterno

This youtube video below is a great song written by a State College band in tribute to the late Joe Paterno.  All funds from the purchase of this song via itunes will go to THON - which is the largest student run philanthropy housed at Penn State and raises funds for pediatric cancer.  What a fabulous idea and an incredibly touching song for those who loved JoePa especially with THON taking place this weekend.

I'm heading right over to itunes to make my purchase.  

"When they say, 'We are PENN STATE,' this is what they are talking about." 

 -Joe Paterno regarding THON.

Yet Another Kendallism

Today at the gym, she and her friend Faith played with "hula hoopies!"  

What a day

Today was no ordinary Friday at our house.  We started with our same routine of getting up and helping Riley get ready for school, but after that, it was very different!

I got together with two friends from Bible study this morning.  I have really enjoyed my Bible study group.  We are all at different places in our lives - some with little kids, some with teenagers, some with adult children and even some with grandkids.  But we have a common thread that brings us together each week.  We all want to grow in our knowledge of scripture and learn to rely on God more and less on ourselves.  I have something in common with almost everyone in the group!  How awesome is that???  There are two PA girls - one from Downingtown, who is now the head Herriman girls lax coach and to whom I've given numerous practice plans, drills, evaluation materials, etc.  BTW, Downingtown is where I did my student teaching and learned everything I needed to know about lacrosse.  The other girl is from West Chester - the town where I went to college!  Small world, right?  What are the chances of that?  It just solidified the fact that I am right where I need to be.

My friend Diana and I went over to our friend Sarah's house to hang out this morning.  Sarah is one of my new crafty friends!  She's a craft blog stalker like me and now we're Pintrest buddies!  Sarah is a wonderful mom and incredible woman.  She's raising four, yes four, beautiful little girls all under the age of 6!  Wow!  I can't even imagine, but she handles it with grace and a sense of calm.  I can learn a lot from her for sure.  Sarah's two oldest daughters are friends of Kendall's from Bible study so the kids had just as much fun today as the moms!

After we left Sarah's house, I took Kendall to the nail salon to get her nails painted for the big dance tonight.  Andy made plans to take her to the Daddy/Daughter Cinderella Ball at our church tonight.  We had gotten her a new dress at Target a few weeks back that screamed "princess" just for tonight.

Here she is getting her very first manicure!

She wanted to show them off to anyone who would look at them!

After getting her nails done our day went back to a normal routine - picking up Riley, taking him to karate, etc.  Riley's friend Matthew is sleeping over tonight so he doesn't feel left out.  Matthew came home with us from karate.  After we got settled back at home, it was time to transform Kendall into the princess she believes herself to be.  We did her hair curly, got her dressed and mommy even lent her a pearl necklace to wear to the dance.  She was beside herself with the results!  She came downstairs to show her brother and Matthew who were playing video games and they never took their eyes off the screen but complied with her desire for their approval.  

Since I couldn't decide which pictures I liked the best, I included most of them here. 

She's the apple of her daddy's eye and she thinks of him as her knight in shining armor.  She was thrilled to be going on a date with daddy tonight.  I'm so thankful they have this opportunity to do this.  I pray he always makes time to take her on dates so she knows how a man should treat her in the future.  She was ready well over 30 minutes early and did not want to wait till it was time to go.  I'm sure they were one of the first ones there, but that's okay...he made her day and that's all that matters!  I can't wait to hear how the rest of the evening turned out! 

My Little Skier!

Today I took Kendall to Snowbird immediately after I picked her up from school - just another perk of driving them to Sandy for school, right?  Their school is near the mouth of Little Cottonwood canyon, so it's maybe 8 miles from Snowbird.  She enjoyed a happy meal on the way up the canyon and by the time we got there, she had been fed and was ready to go ski.  It was also Grace Lutheran School's annual ski day today so we saw teachers and students from her school.

Our goal today was to ski without the edgie wedgie.  We took one practice run to warm up and then conveniently her edgie wedgie came loose and came off!  She was a little tentative the first run without it - there was a little frustration in the form of yelling about how she hates skiing and she wanted her edgie wedgie back on, but she made it to the bottom of Chickadee without any problems.  We took it slow and did lots of snake turns.  She was so excited by the time we got back on the lift that she did it all by herself.  I never heard another word about wanting her edgie wedgie back for the rest of the day!  I can't believe how well she's done with skiing this year.  She just continues to impress me.

For those of you not familiar with skiing and what an edgie wedgie does, it helps keep her ski tips together to make a "pizza" or "snowplow" shape which allows her to stop (and turn) as a beginner.  If she can't keep her tips together, she will be out of control.  Her ski instructor said sometimes 3 year olds have a hard time with getting their legs into the correct position, but obviously Kendall can do this all on her own!  I think by next year we will be working on "french fries" instead of "pizza!"

Here's a little video I made from our trip to Snowbird today.  I couldn't have been more proud of her today.  She's come so far in just two months.  I think our next ski trip might be to Brighton so I can get a Majestic ticket for $35 and she can do some "real" greens instead of the bunny slopes.  I wasn't sure if we'd get this far this year or not.  I'm so thankful we spent the money on lessons with the kids!  We will be able to ski together as a family real soon!

More Powder Shots!

Here are a few from what was supposed to be our "family" ski day but Andy was home sick with a nasty cold so it ended up being just me and the kids.

Here are the Powder Shots from Snowbird:

So proud of him!

Love that she's grinning ear to ear!

Happily enjoying a Hershey's kiss while riding the lift

A New Kendallism

Today Kendall and I went to Petco and while we were there we got to see some "skinny" pigs!

Meeting a Denver Bronco

Bring a Denver Bronco to School Day?

It was for one of Riley's classmates.  Riley's friend, Kaden, is the little brother of Denver Bronco, Zane Beadles.  Now that Zane's NFL season is over, he came home to visit Utah and one of those stops included Grace Lutheran School and Miss G's 2nd grade class.  Zane is also a former Ute standout.  Most of the kids at Grace are Utes fans by default, which made this visit even more special.  Denver is the closest NFL team to SLC and some of these kids remember seeing Zane play for Utah and have continued to watch him in the NFL.  Kaden is pictured above with his brother Zane.  He came to talk to the kids about what he does for a living.  The kids were able to ask him questions and he talked to them about what it's like to play football in the NFL.  Zane is an offensive lineman who's job it is to protect Tim Tebow.  What a great conversation for kids in a Christian school, huh?  

A happy bunch of second graders posing with Zane Beadles from the Denver Broncos!  This totally made Riley's day!  He talked about meeting Zane the ENTIRE way home from school.  On a side note, last year during our Jog-A-Thon, we were about $500 short of meeting our $13,000 goal.  Thankfully after a call from Jill, Kaden's mom, Zane graciously donated the remaining $500 to meet our goal!  What a great guy!  So glad my kids are able to be exposed to people like Zane.

What a Week!

It's just been one of those weeks here around the Chunko house.  Andy was gone all of last week, sick as a dog over the weekend and gone all of this week.  So basically I have had NO break from my little munchkins for two weeks.  To top it off, our sweet 12 yr. old Penton got sick this week.  I was scared to death we were going to lose her on Tuesday night.

Tuesday is our busy day.  Both kids have school which means multiple trips to Grace during the day.  I also had a friend over to do some crafting that afternoon.  After school is when it gets really busy.  Kendall has dance class at 4:15 and Riley has scouts at 6:30.  Instead of a den meeting this week, we were given the opportunity to go to Chili's for a fundraiser dinner - 15% of the bill went to his pack.  We met another family there (who's hubby is in the marines and gone until March).  Her two oldest kids are the same ages as our kids and they get along really well.

So after a crazy day, and a nice meal with another adult, we get home to discover Penton had peed and pooped all over the kitchen.  She came hobbling out of the family room (where she's NOT allowed) into the kitchen to see us.  Immediately I knew something was wrong.  She could barely walk and she doesn't usually have accidents in the house.  She also didn't seem herself - she was shaking, panting and extremely nervous.

I tried to call our vet, but unfortunately by 8 pm, they were closed.  I called the 24hr. ER Vet in Sandy and explained what I knew.  They suggested she had a seizure.  THAT freaked me out.  All I kept thinking about was I can't lose my dog tonight while Andy is away.  Not in the middle of the night with two kids by myself.  I asked the vet what I could do to ease her anxiety and what to look for.  I decided to just wait and see would be the best course of action.

In the meantime I had Riley put himself and Kendall to bed (He's so dear to help me out that way.  Both kids said prayers for Penton before bed.)  I called Kevin and put him on alert.  I warned him that I might need him to come watch the kids in the middle of the night while I took her to the vet if she had another seizure.  I also sent a message to Kenna who is a friend of mine who watches our kids for us a lot.

This is a picture of Penton Tuesday night.  You can see how scared she was by the look in her eyes.  She's a tough dog and can tolerate a lot of pain, but to see her scared and nervous freaked me out even more.

I got Penton comfy and calmed down near the laundry room so I went into the family room to clean some things up and to look up some info on seizures.  I heard Penton shuffling around on her bed so I went to check on her.  It was dark to try to keep her calm and peaceful.  In the dark I smelled urine.  I later came to find that she had peed while continuing to lay in it.  She was shaking and panting heavily again.  I was concerned she had a smaller seizure.  Thankfully just at that time Kenna called to check in on Penton.  Kenna offered to come over and help me figure out what to do.  As soon as Kenna took one look at her she became the voice of reason for me.  She helped me get Penton into the back of my car and I called Kevin on the way and asked him to meet me there.  I was terrified I'd have to put her down and didn't want to do that alone.

We got to the vet and he took a good look at her and decided that she didn't have a seizure but instead has idiopathic vestibular disease.  I had never heard of this before but he said it's common in older dogs.  The nerves between their middle ear and brain go haywire and they get really dizzy and have balance problems.  That was why she couldn't walk well.  She also had a head tilt and eye twitching.  The nervousness and panting were do to the stress and fear of not understanding what was happening to her.  He said there is no medication for this condition and that it should subside in about a week.

What a relief that it wasn't seizures or a stroke, which both have similar signs as vestibular disease.  The sad thing is that she struggles to walk.  The carpet, which she's not allowed on, and the grass seem to offer her the most stable conditions for walking.  She falls over or her back legs give out often.  She hasn't eaten for the past 2 days which also has me concerned.  She's lost her spark.  She looks so sad in her eyes because she doesn't understand what's happening to her.  It breaks my heart because I can't do anything to help her feel better.  I have broken my rule about the carpet for now.  She slept there last night.  We leave a light on at night for her to help orient her if she wakes while it's dark.  I try not to carry her so that she feels more grounded, even if it means her legs give out.

I'm hoping that she recovers sooner rather than later.  She's such a sweet hearted dog and I hate to see her suffer like this, but I'm thrilled that it will pass and she should be her old self before long.  We adopted Penton when we lived in Albany, NY from the humane society.  She's been with me through almost my entire married life.  She was our "kid" for many years and has always been an important part of our family life.  I know at some point, her life will end.  I'm just very thankful that it wasn't this week, while I was solo.  I'm also so grateful for Kevin and Kenna.  Knowing I could count on both of them in a difficult time while Andy is gone.  It's so comforting to have that security here with no family to lean on in times of struggle.  And just in case I didn't have enough going on this week, God decided I could use another challenge and allowed me to get sick.  I've been under the weather (fighting it as long as I can) most of the week and it's finally all caught up with me.  Guess He thinks I can handle it, right?

If you have an older dog, you may want to check out more on vestibular disease HERE.  I had never heard of it before and if I knew about it in advance I might have been less freaked out.