we jumped in the car and drove to Dana point California. we stayed with some friends. which is the best kind of friends, the kind that live one block up from the beach! we went to the beach a couple of days and then came home. thanks, we had a blast!
go ahead, drink her in.
so we started a project. i have been looking for a big coffee table. i want a big table. i even thought about buying a kitchen table and cutting off the bottom part of the legs to make it a coffee table height. but this project started with a blog, knockoffwood.blogspot.com. anna takes expensive furniture and figures out how they are made and then offers the plans, shopping list and directions for free! i have been reading her blog for a while and love her plans, and i love a good diy project. i saw a plan for a big coffee table and i knew i had to have it. i showed charlie b the blog and he thought it was doable. after looking at the plans for a while, charlie b decided he could do it even better. so we super-sized the coffee table, added a storage option with a lid. i was going to paint it the chocolate brown that i wanted, and we went to lowes.
we bought all of our supplies. charlie changed the type of wood to particle board, thinking it would be easier. we assembled it... and it was BIG! did i say big? i mean BIG!! we didn't know what to think for a while. so we decided to live with it for a while to see what we thought. charlie called me the next day from work, he had been brainstorming of what we could do with this giant box. maybe a sandbox for zella, a storage unit for the garage. i suggested we put it on craigs list to see if anyone wanted a big box. charlie said he wanted to re-do the coffee table and follow anna's directions a little big more closely. he said we could re-use the wheels and we were really just out the cost of the particle board. so we regrouped and redrew the plans. decided on real wood, and headed back out to lowes.
so we got our new wood. had it cut, and it is just waiting for us to have time to assemble her. i think she is going to be beautiful! i am glad that we had to re-do her. i think she will be better, stronger and more durable.
now we have do have plans for the big box. but i will leave you with this...
we went to the library, and zella got her first library card. she was so excited. we read a bunch of books and checked out a few and a movie. the expression on her face was priceless.
in other news, we have been working on a big project. i will show pictures later. she is a big one. and i think we are going to go a little smaller this time. what am i talking about?
is the love of my life.
since my sister mentioned me in her blog yesterday, i thought i would show a picture of two of what she was talking about. in both pictures, you can see the borders that she made. they are so beautiful and i love the way it adds an extra special meaning to me.
thanks kim! i love you
yesterday was too nice outside to stay indoors. when zella got up i asked her what she wanted to do today. she said go on a picnic. so we rode our bikes up to the park and had a picnic. we snacked on cheese sticks and apples. we played with the tea set we brought and had a great tea party at the park.
after we drank all of our tea and at all of our food, we went to the playground. we had the entire park to ourselves. nobody was there. so we climbed, swung, slid, jumped, chased and laughed. we had a great time. after a while, i wanted to swing. they have this big red chair-swing, perfect for leaning back on. so i was swinging in it and zella wanted to sit on my lap. we were swinging as high as we could. i was tilting my head back, so that i could look straight at the sky. this is when my heart became so full. i was overwhelmed. and i was so thankful to be her mommy. i told zella that i hope she remembers days like these. the kind of day that we ditched all of our normal plans to go and play at the park. the kind of day that she is the most important person in my life. the kind of day that was filled with so much joy and fun. days that we spent together, just her and i. i told her that having a tea party was one of my favorite things. i said that i loved her so much and i hope she remembers that.
i was holding her as tight as i could on my lap, swinging as high as we could. i asked her if she would stop growing up. that i wanted her to stay my little girl forever. she asked me why, and i said that each day she lives gets us one day closer to the day she will move out of our house to live on her own. and each day gets her closer to the day she meets the man she will fall in love with and marry. and that i will love my job as a grandmother, i love her where she is right now. she looked at me and said, i don't want to move out. i want to live with you and daddy forever. me too baby, me too. but then reality set in and i told her that one day she will want to move out, get married and start her own family. and that daddy and i would be really happy for her when that time comes. she turned her head around and said, but you like me at five? yes baby, i like you at five!
