A Crazy Day in the Life of a Ray

4/19/11

Who us?

We've just been hangin' around...

MY camera broke. Jordy turned 3 in January with a Fairy party. Dont ask me where the pictures are.

Here is Jarom with a goat. Hows that work?

February was great I'm sure. I think it rained a lot.

In March we went to Arizona for Lyal's Grandmothers Funeral. We realized we are loners and right where we should be in life. Rachael loooved the weather and pool and Lyal confirmed we will never ever live in Arizona. Lyal 1, Rachael 0. Our rental house sold in one day for cash and we were persuaded to move out in 10 days but really pack everything and clean in 2 since I had plans. Called life. How's this picture look? Does Jarom have a black eye? Of course not. Somehow his mother did some complicated magic trick on Photoshop and accidently saved it as such. Sigh.

April is great. In this here trailer we call home till May 1st.

Sorry...No pictures available. I think your imaginations will be more entartaining than the real deal.

We are truly blessed with our little family, extended families, and friends like family that support our crazy whimsical ideas. Deep down they know we are stable and responsible. I think?

And I am really really grateful but sounding cynical and bitter which I'm not. Well I wasn't till I decided to write it all down. It sounds horrible and bleak but we are truly happy and loving life.

This year has been full of small celebrations, exciting school projects, moments of beautiful weather and vistas and proud accomplishments. We are so excited and looking at all the good of living in small town all American Exeter where we can walk to church and an old fashioned A&W. Where we can spend the summer BBQing with our friends and then enjoying free country concerts in the park. Bike riding, library visits, scout camps, reading, and serving, gardening, fundraising and saving some gas money. Hope you are getting excited for all the possibilities of summer.

It was great catchin up!!

12/30/10

12/13/10

My First Lego League Engineer

I am so proud of Jacob and his Lego League team (MAJUC)that participated for the first time in a First Lego League Robotics competition in Clovis this last weekend. Jacob was one of the 3 programmers from his team that received the parts and the software and figured out how to program the robot all on their own the last couple of months. They were the first in all 3 of their matches to complete the competitive mission and we were pretty proud of them. Some of the event staff were wondering if that was the only trick up our sleeve...and It was. But we had come a long way and accomplishing one out of the 14 missions was our goal. I also think we were the only team out of 96 that didn't have matching T-shirts but don't worry...Next year we'll be back, strong, flying our geek flag :) This may be the first time my child accomplished something I don't think I could even begin to wrap my mind around. Aaaahhhh! What a new stage of life for both of us.

I can't forget Jarom and his JR FLL team that was only one of two teams in the whole Central California region to compete. The other team was also from our homeschool group. They had a little party and demonstrated their research project science fair style. They had a replica of their surgery robot that they had constructed (of Legos of course)and also gave a short presentation. A little scary for a 6 year old but

he did his part without throwing up on the judges :) He wasn't feeling well so we left right after and Jacob stayed with his team. Next year we'll have all 3 of our boys there. It's funny the places life brings you sometimes. To find out more about First Lego League and their mission click HERE.

My Bobcat

So Proud of our Boy #2 to recieve his Bobcat rank. I love being a Tiger Mama.

12/3/10

Come and gone

I am so sad to see my Thanksgiving mantle and Thanksgiving days off go

Hope you all had a stress free Thanksgiving and were able to spend some time enjoying your families.

10/6/10

Dingbat!

Just fun and free and easy...

(Click here for a way cute version)

10/4/10

Bein Kinda Busy

So many projects to do...so little time. And in that small amount of time I do have I have no patience for sanding and priming and waiting so easy peasy projects are my cup of tea. This required no skills and very little waiting and it filled my crafting bug for the week. LURV it~

$8 dollar thrift store find

$2 something can o watermelon spray paint

moved into a new house and the walls were the SAME exact watermelon color so...

a can o black spray paint fromt the box in the garage

$??(hubby bought it) roll of chicken wire from Home Depot

AND I didn't get pics but Friday I had a baby shower and bought a smaller $3 frame at the thrift store, used all the leftover watermelon paint and chicken wire and clipped on some bows and threw in a cheetah print covered wipes case and had an adorable, DIFFERENT, non Target gift in barely any time at all. Happy Crafting!

I know it's cheesy BUT

If you're feeling kinda lonely. Like you wished you lived by somebody that acutally liked you. And you're feeling kinda friendless...Go be a friend to somebody...anybody...you'll feel better...it works. Amen.

9/3/10

"Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"

"You will not be able to travel through life on world light."

8/31/10

Please

Please do not make these. Please do not make these and put lollipop sticks in them freeze them and dip them in chocolate. I'm just saying cause if you do you will eat a lot. I mean A lot of cookie dough and you may hate me. A lot.

8/24/10

8/22/10

Whooping cough blues...

h the whooping cough blues...stuck in our house for coming up on 25 days give or take. That is another post for another day, believe me. Long story short I'm changing up my boys room a little and they had these two blue (like royal/pottery barn blue with enhanced sharpie scribbling) boxes

that held misc. items on the bookshelves on their beds that are now going to be Jordyn's beds. I was about to thrift store them which I usually, I mean always do but was inspired by this to clean things up a little bit. And I love the idea of having a box to pull down when baking. I have an adorable wire basket that holds all my misc. measuring cups and spoons so that when I am cookingI can just pull it down and have everything accessible. My fave new cooking habit.

First I painted the boxes a cream color from the spray paint box and HATED it! What was my obsession with all paint matte a few years ago? I don't know but I know I'm over it. Well that was good primer I guess. I had a krylon peekaboo blue that is more baby boy than aqua kitchen but I had it and I'm not patient and wanted to do that project now.
I wish I had a next door neighbor that liked me and had a cricut with a few extra sheets of vinyl to share but I don't so Then I used this technique.

They definetly have that hand painted look but

I had planned to throw them in the thrift store pile so who am I to complain too much?

and they Cost me:$0.00

Next time I would actually have another white paint besides watercolors! in the house. I would also make the font twice the size, and actually take the time to place the papers on STRAIGHT. Next time? Hopefully there are never any more stuck in my house for 25 days and actually have time do crafts events but never say never...

Feelin Crafty

got this cork board as a hand me down almost 2 years ago from my step mom and it has been a staple in our household. It holds all art and is randomly decorated for holidays reminiscent of elementary classroom boards. On the other side of this window is another staple of our house, our white board.It's practically the exact same size. This holds quotes, notes, and to do lists depending on the need but we use this daily and last year spruced it up with some vinyl from JoAnn's for $10. It had all the colors I wanted to start incorporating in the house.

Well... the white board frame is black so ...duh...I had the box of spray paint out and decided to at least make the two a little more cohesive. I also had a yard of adorable muslin...(that cost me $3.99/yard plus 20% off )and a can of spray adhesive in the garage.

First I taped off the cork portion of the board and spray painted the frame black.
Then I pulled up the tape and paper and taped off the frame.
Then I applied spray adhesive to the cork and starting from the top and working down slowly layed the muslin over the cork. I also had a pizza crust/pastry roller I had picked up at the di for change that i used to push out any bubbles as I went along.
What Next?I then used an exacto knife to get a nice clean edge along the inside of the frame.

Learn from my mistake moment...The ends didn't seem like they had gotten enough adhesive so I lifted the ends up and sprayed some more. Aaahhh..too much! With the thinness of the fabric we were going to have a problem with the bottom. There were quite a few globs of glue showing through that were not going to dry clear or unnoticeable.
Waa Laa ...the ruffle and flower. It's not a real ruffle because I wasn't sure I had enough muslin left to make the size I needed. Just one seam down a folded over piece of muslin, and some hot glue. It's a little more cutesy than I had planned but solved the problem! (The flower is 2 layers muslin, 1 burlap, and a vintage button center.) The pics don't give it justice, I was taking them in the worst lighting. p>

I had planned on using fabric paint to write Ray's Art Gallery or something like the sort on top but felt like with the new accessory on bottom that would be too much and distracting from all the paper work that usually takes up all the space...What do you think...Go for the wording, or fine as is?? Any ideas for cute push pins?

Next time: I would wait for the frame to dry longer...I am not so patient. I spent 10 minutes touching up ripped up black paint...oh well...next time :)

8/21/10

super love it! hope you do too!

anyone wanna do a remake with me?!?

8/11/10

What are you doing for the next 5 years?

7/12/10

Why yes

hy yes, I am a girl and free to change my mind. Repeatedly of course! I just wanted to stop by my own little space on the www to say hi to those of you hanging out. Usually no news is good news as it is this time with our little branch of the Rays. We've been traveling around Utah reeking havoc on the poor gracious souls we stayed with. Thanks for those who love us and let us visit! Had some car troubles with a twisted ankle thanks to those wild BYU students, not due to my own clutsiness at all. We celbrated 4th of July in grand Provo style and came home and celebrated our 11th anniversary in our normal nonchalant style and had a super 6th birthday for Jarom Boos celebrated in style. Here are some few pics of what we've been up to. We are so happy to be home and back in our beds. Happy summering!

Meeting our newest baby cousin Gordon!! Don't worry Miss Jordy doesn't hate you!