crumbling, eroding, falling to pieces, falling apart

My man, he likes a project.  Call him crazy, call him handy, or just

call him my man.  Some men like to bike and run--Kyle he likes

to build and fix.  So when the last piece of railing fell of the

porch of our 61 year old house this spring and the steps

continued eroding into little pieces of garden pebbles, we 

looked into pouring new cement.  Prices we heard were high,

anywhere from $1500 to $2000.  

Sigh, 

we didn't have that to spend on steps, so being

the handy man that he is Kyle looked into tiling over

the bad cement for a 10 year fix.  He had seen it done

and thought it might work.  We made our way to 

our favorite tile store (Tile For Less) where they

now know us on a first name basis and even 

feel comfortable enough with us to let a swear

word out (or two.)  We found some rough surfaced

tile that even looked like cement and the price tag

on THIS was closer to $150. 

Labor: Free

We saved ourselves a cool $1200 (or so) dollars.

I forgot how BAD!!!! these steps looked until

today when I pulled up these pictures!

Crumbling, Eroding, Falling to pieces...

(and you thought this post was going 

to be about ME right? ha ha)

Here is our porch remodel.

SERIOUSLY?? Yikes!!!

Quite literally...falling to pieces

bad, bad and just plain bad!

Temporary wood holding up porch roof, important details!

Hard at work

Rain

OR shine!

Making progress

New tile is kind of like "if you give a mouse a cookie...."

(the book) it leads to other things, right?  The old

metal 1950's post that was holding UP the roof over

the porch ALSO fell off (can't wait to see what

else falls off this old house--it AMAZES me sometimes

to think what we paid for a completely broken

down old house to live a good location ("location,

location, location!") in Salt Lake City.

I digress though....where was I?

Things falling apart, ah yes, the post...it fell off too.

Kinda gotta have a post to hold up the roof so Mr. Handy

thought he would build a lovely new one out of wood.

As follows:

New Post

Leveling and making thing straight

Adding some "bulk", some "beef", some "texture"

Caulking and wood fill

OHHHH pretty!

Time for primer and paint

And there it is!!

New steps!

New post!

Sing Hallelujah! 

Can you see how this is leading to painting the

old trim white that is now old and tan and peeling?

And can you see the samples of gray

paint on the house?

UH-HUH!

If you give a mouse a cookie...

or in my case if you give my man some tile...

Thank goodness he's CHEAP!

Next on the agenda, scraping and painting the all old trim a 

new shiny white.  Kyle plans on hand painting the brick to 

bring orange 1950's brick up to the 2012's.  

No offense to any who love old orange brick--our house

is just ready for a change.  We think we've settled on a 

color, and it will probably take all summer to finish this--but we

have NOTHING but time on our hands~

graduation

He did it!

(Not that it was ever a question)

I thought I would be more sad...but

I think I cried all my "sad tears/it's the last

thing he's doing tears" all year long.

My mom asked how I felt

and I said said, "strangely HAPPY!"

For him.

His future.

His accomplishment.

The hope, the promise

of what can come.

It was a nice night...we

didn't see enough of him--his

friends got all his time.

But, I guess, that's how it should be.

Olympus High Senior Graduation, 2012.

They will be the last graduating

class from the old Olympus building.

Pretty cool.

Ceremonies held at U of U.

May 31, 2012.

My "sons"  Tanner, Josh, Coleman (Jackson) & Brev (Nate)

Grandma Ladanye and Grandparents "Regular"

Gathering the (fake) diploma 

Cole, Mitchell, Tanner, Brady, Coleman & Josh

Proud sister and her brother.

Grandma and Josh

Yup, they (think) are pretty cool.

All gathered together....

Silver caps, girls.

Green caps, boys.

More shots of the homies

Grace with her extra brothers.

SOOOOOO typical, Josh and Gray

Josh and the girls

Just Josh

Josh Tanner Brev

Tanner, Josh, Coleman and Brev

Josh and Chris

Josh and Connor

Congrats Josh we are so proud of you!!

We love you very much!!

Now he's off to Newport Beach, CA

for a week with 30 boys.

And 30 more girls just down the road.

All from Olympus.

Senior Trips.

Heaven help Newport Beach.

I'm off to take a Xanax.

Luckiest Mom In the Whole Wide World

Once upon a time there was a girl who wanted
to be Mother more than anything in the whole
wide world. Even though the notion of motherhood 
is somewhat archaic in the world as a whole, 
it was the dream she dreamed.


She tried and tried and things kept going 
terribly wrong, but she didn't give up. 
And even though her heart kept breaking 
she prayed, and hoped, and dreamed of the 
day when she would hold a tiny baby 
in her arms.


One day, her dream came true and she was
blessed with a healthy (almost) 9 pound
baby boy who healed her very broken heart.


Her dream of being a mother had come true.




The Gods must have decided she deserved 
a really GOOD baby, who would grow into 
a really GREAT son...because somehow that's 
what she got.  Better than good and somehow
beyond great too.  Delicious and fulfilling
and joyful her heart rang true as she
raised him.  This was what she had been
called to do.  Somewhere in the deepest
parts of her soul, this was what resonated
to her.


Time passed and in what feels like an
instant, her child has grown into a 
young man.


HOW could this be possible?  Yesterday
he was two, and tomorrow he will be gone.


She is trying to remember how this all 
happened so fast, the time part--flying
by--that is, and if she did the best that she
could (she is SURE she didn't do everything
right) and some days she did everything so 
very very wrong and she hopes he forgives her
for being human in all of her efforts.


Now this boy is getting ready to graduate.
The mothers heart is feeling very heavy
and sad that her "baby" is all grown up.


She is very excited to see what his future
will hold and is certain if he chooses to
he will FLY!  She cannot wait to watch
him soar and reach in and be a part of the
whole process when he lets her.  When he
wants her.  When he needs her.

Those days will become less.  And less.


In the meantime, this 'letting go' thing 
is coming with its fair share of tears 
on the mothers part.  She's trying to 
hide them, but sometimes they sneak out.


Please forgive her.  It feels as if a
tiny chunk of her heart is leaving
her body, a part that has been a bigger
part of the whole for a very long time
(18 years!) and letting go of that 
part is hard.


This mom whispered to her husband
on Saturday, that as hard as these 
transitions in life are, SHE
literally felt like the luckiest mom
in the whole wide world on Saturday night.


She got to be a teeny part of this boys Prom.
A friend hired a Chef to cook food (good
stuff!) and she got to decorate and
be creative in her mother in laws loveliest
of yards to help create a moment for
THEIR prom. 


She wanted it to feel magical for them.
So she tried her very best to create some.


She got to serve food and take pictures, on
her camera and in her heart, of the priceless
priceless moments.  This snapshot in time.
Lucky for her, the pictures in her heart will
be imprinted there forever.


Sigh.  Happy sigh.


It was a lot of work, but even more joy...
And as she said before, She felt like the 
LUCKIEST Mom in the whole wide world
on Saturday night.


She proudly presents...


Olympus Senior Prom Dinner 
2012.  

~With love from ALL the 

parts of her heart~

that MOM :)