stuff i made

even though I wasn't busy blogging all summer,
I was busy making stuff

this is a bench I made for my mom
I won't lie, it's awesome

plans from the amazing ana white
for the rustic pottery bench

so my only not happiness about this is our lame lumber store
they're helpful, just not big enough to have what I want
if I don't want to drive to park city for home depot...
(because I was making this the day of her birthday)
...I buy the wood there
it's way more than ana estimates wood should cost
plus they have never heard of a 1 by 3
so I have to figure out how to do it with 1 by 4 boards
that are far from straight

in this instance things worked out
I also altered the top because I knew this bench
would be for plants
so the slats would be better than a solid top
for dripping water

then black stain
then poly spray
then hooray

friends, I know I live in Wyoming and all
but I am not a lumberjack
I'm still kind of scared of the saw
and I don't know any of the right names for tools

Derek, hand me Filipe the turner

the point: you can totally do this

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back to school

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tonight was the best party ever
to celebrate school starting tomorrow

I've already cried thinking about summer ending...
....when I got the kindergarten information packet in the mail
....when I was telling my friend about the cute letter in the information packet
about how the teacher was going to love the kids like her own
....when my sister moved away to college
.....when I snuggled in bed with Lily all night and looked at the picture of us when she was a baby
....during a special dad prayer before bed to keep her brave and true through the year

I hope I'm good because school's in the morning
and I really am excited for her and how wonderful kindergarten is

I loved school

so tonight we went for a nienie style-ish celebration feast
only old school lunch style

lily's crown: she's going to north elementary
they're the north stars
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placecards. my hub in kindergarten
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grandpa & grandma
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some sisters that weren't in town but are cute nonetheless
ha ha I said nonetheless
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the hawaiian crown for my sister heading back to byu-hawaii
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aww cute. i still remember that dress's skirt has 7 layers of wonderful
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I realized that I mostly loved that I didn't buy anything for this party
besides some food but not much of that either

it just took:
37 minutes of raspberry picking
derek to clean up max's cocoa krispies from yesterday...or maybe 4 days ago
a dig through the party bucket
the surplus new school supply pile and a stapler
finding some olden day pictures on the computer
a google search for 'wolverine'
the party favorites channel from the tv

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ha ha. my middle school sister's mascot is the wolverines.
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while I don't think the 5-year-old appreciated the lunch-ladyness that went into the menu planning, my dad did so it's all good

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baked sweet potato fries
sloppy joes....slop-sloppy joes ya
good eats macaroni & cheese
green beans
a dandee raspberry & cream cake

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afterwards we did the new school clothes fashion show
somehow the dancing involved robots, pirates, cats and hobos
sorry for non-attenders, it's not a video

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I am such a proud proud momma
Max and I will miss her tomorrow
I love that I got the real & true smile in her eyes smile
she's happy and she's ready
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sorry

I would have blogged more this summer but Max wouldn't let go of me.
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And when a little human as handsome as he is with the dark dark eyes and the eyelashes and the summer blonde hair and the lips and the belly and the toesies asks you to play trains all day you pretty much do it.
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No matter how loud he sometimes might roar.
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