Pickard Family Disney Vacation 2012

 We took our traditional Disney trip with the Pickard side of the family in mid March. We enjoyed another stay at the Shades of Green resort on Disney property and had a very full week of fun at a variety of the parks. It was great to see the family and so much fun time with them. It was also great to be away from work and school. Even though we were tired every day from being out in the sun and doing a lot of walking and riding rides, it was worth it. Wish those trips didn't come to an end and I already miss my family so much. This was the first year that all the kids were tall enough to go on some of the bigger rides, so Space Mountain was our first ride with all family members riding together (although Braden wasn't so sure he liked it afterward) it was nice that we could all go on together.

Other than spending time with my family, my favorite things were riding the two dragon roller coasters at Universal Studios Island's of Adventure (4 rides total!) and also the early morning safari at Animal Kingdom. Josh enjoyed Fear Fall of Doom that I dragged him on and I ended up hating and screaming like a baby and he always has fun with the Toy Story Mania attraction:)

Copy and past the URL below to see a slide show that captures a part of our adventure. Definitely magical!

https://picasaweb.google.com/118167360605468315936/PickardFamilyDisneyVacation2012?locked=true#slideshow/5757602121776494962

Good Friends, Good Times

We were able to enjoy a visit to our good friends house Ben and Sarah last month. On our way out of town for Spring Break we enjoyed spending time with them and their boys. It is always nice to see them when traveling through the area. Wish we lived closer, but we cherish the moments we have together. So thankful for their friendship no matter how many miles are in between!

And never a dull moment:)

Happy Birthday!!

Friday was my birthday in addition to my twin brother Mike and he was nice enough to drive up to visit me. We didn't have plans in mind except to hang out so after some time we decided to go play billards. Since I knew Concordia has some tables we headed out to the school and played for a while in addition to playing some air hockey. As we were leaving Mike noticed a photo booth that was set up for what I think was a party they were having yesterday and since no one was around we decided to take advantage of the booth and took some 29th b-day photos!

Dartboard Cabinet

I didn't realize that I was going to have a goal for this month (or even this year) until Jenean placed on the blog that it was my goal to make a dart board cabinet. So here I am writing on the blog for really the first time. I have come to realize that this is important especially for my parents since they seem to frequent our blog!

The entire dartboard cabinet idea started when Jenean bought me a dart board for Christmas and it was a plastic tip board. I really wanted a steel tip board but she was concerned about our walls in the apartment. Therefore, the idea was born to make a dart board cabinet. The only problem left was how to get a steel tip dart board at a reasonable price. This problem was solved by our Goodwill store where I found a dartboard with 4 sets of darts in a cabinet for $10. I was able to reuse the hinges, darts, board, and chalk boards which saved a lot of money.

With the dartboard in hand I started by buying some new tools to make the process a little easier. (Oh and I will always take an opportunity to buy tools) The FLUKE meter wasn't on my list but is by far my favorite tool (I was able to get it for $5 at Goodwill and fix it into working condition. I considered selling it since it retails for $150 but realize I will never purchase one and therefore am keeping it) Jenean for some off reason likes the dovetail saw.

After making the purchases it was off to cutting the wood. I cut most of it outside on the porch when it was 55 degrees in early January but forgot to rip the doors so when it was 10 degrees outside I went into the bathroom and made the last cuts. I was rather ambitious at the beginning and attempted to make the box out of dovetails yet failed miserably. I have been told is a hard skill to learn and I wasn't happy with how mine turned out so I cut the tails off and drove screws into the sides covering them with wood dowel pins.

This is the first step of staining with only the frame. In all it took 3 coats as I used two different stains followed by two coats of polyurithane.

Lastly, the outside. This took a while as I had to cut out a template for the Steelers emblem.

The final product!!

Who knows what my next goal will be...maybe survive my last big semester!!!

Craft Closet and Linen Closet - ORGANIZED!

So my goal for January was to organize the guest room closet as my craft closet and to also organize the linen closet. I'm glad to say they are both officially organized. Not only do I enjoy the actual organizing it is also a stress reliever for me to organize. It's been pretty stressful at work, so this was a great weekend project. I am thinking I need to be making things and working with my hands on a regular basis to help keep my stress level down...it really helps. So here are the before and after pictures of the closets.

Guest Room closet before pictures:

The plastic under the bed storage bins (which aren't even under a bed), made it difficult for me to easily access my crafts supplies. There is a lot of fabric beginning to accumulate because of my increase of sewing projects, not to mention I have crochet supplies & other craft items in other rooms.  I also wanted to cover the electrical box just to help make it feel more like a craft closet with inspiration not just the guest room closet.

Craft Closet (with other storage needed) after:

 

 I'm really happy about how this turned out. Many of the organizational bins are from Joann fabrics thanks to Christmas money from Josh's parents. I also had to use some some shelving units and the table that we already had to give some height so that I wasn't bending over for everything. I love the pattern canvas totes.

I found the fabric covered bulletin board that matched the colors for $2.99 at Goodwill:)  Along with the small blue box on the top shelf with alpha dividers inside that I can use for pics, cards, small cut outs, or whatever other small things that I would like to keep organized better. One tote is for craft items to be completed or for future. Another tote is for sewing, fabric and year for crocheting. The other tote is for vases, candles, small picture frames that I may rotate through the year or use for center pieces. The plastic bin in the very middle standing up is for my scrapbooking stuff. This is AWESOME! It has a handle so I can carry it into the living room or another location to scrap on the go. I used it last night to work on a project and the start up and clean up was so much easier because everything had it's place in that case! I also have two plastic divider bins with handles that stack easily. These are great for things like glue gun, buttons and clips, small craft tools, paint brushes, etc.

I kept one of my under the bed bins for gift bags, tissue paper and wrapping supplies as I like to recycle those and this bin works best for the big bags and boxes. My cutting mat and sewing machine fit nicely on the side and in reach. On the top shelf (with room to grow if needed) I have my larger pieces of extra fabric, a small basic form the dollar store (which I now have some small vases in that can't be stacked with the others) and of course my organizing utility tote for traveling with crafts from Thirty-One Gifts. I can't wait to get some ideas for future projects up on my bulletin board and enjoy my organized craft closet!!!

Linen closet before:                                                     Linen closet after:

                                                                                            

The Linen closet was not on my priority list to invest much money, just to get it organized so it was so cluttered and messy. The dollar store was what helped me get this closet in to shape. The green and blue plastic totes and two black baskets cost me $10. So with 10 bucks and some of the bins I already had this closet made a vast improvement with some fun colors:)

Christmas 2011

We traveled to Traverse City to spend the week before Christmas with my family.  On our way we stopped on Josh's sisters to help babysit and celebrate the Christmas season with them. Josh was very creative and thoughtful to pick out some crafts for the kids to make for gifts for their parents. The kids really enjoyed making their gifts and the girls were especially excited to put them under the tree. We enjoyed spending time with the Weis' and having Mike join us for a day as well. We even got a game of Ticket to Ride in!!!

 The girls were fascinated with the hot glue gun which only Josh was allowed to touch, so they helped hand him the Popsicle sticks and watched.

Charlie WOULD NOT take off this hat and he pulled in on so far it would make his ears stick out. What a cutie (even though he's looks a little sleepy right here). He is coloring his magnet crosses for mommy and daddy.

The girls decorated pencil holders made of cans and Popsicle sticks and then painted flower magnets for mommy and daddy. They both did a great job painting with brushes (might have been the first time). Josh made sure no paint got on anything else and surprisingly it didn't:)

It was nice to spend time with family as well. We hung out with my parents in the evenings after work and it was great to relax and take a break from school and work.  We had a yummy lunch at my grandma's house on Wednesday.  It was nice to spend some time with her and enjoy her company. We went out to lunch one day at a local Louisiana style cafe and I ate alligator for the first time. It tasted good, just a bit tough. I'd eat it again! We went to dinner with Jon, Tara the kids and my parents on on Thursday night. Josh and I shared a table with Alyssa and Jacob and it was fun to catch up with them and hear about the books they're reading, choir and band concerts and their tween/teen perspectives. Love those two:)

Friday night we celebrated Christmas with a nice turkey and ham dinner, stopping by the live nativity at church (where the young girl who played the angel was tired and ready to go home, pics to follow because it was too funny to pass up), opening presents, darts and XBox Kinects.  Our gift from my parents this year is our upcoming trip to Disney and Shades of Green. We can't wait for that trip in March!!!

Tara and I were going to take a picture of each other and apparently decided at the same time...lol.

 

Alyssa loved the donkey at the live Nativity and couldn't wait to get her pic with him.

Usually the Angel, as I know from experience taking part in the live nativity, stand and holds the trumpet pretending to sound the horn. It had been a long night for this Angel...

 Sitting down...checking out the horn...

 ...leaning on the horn and had just asked what time it was, lol...

 ...making sure her gloves are holding up...

...no playing the horn but leaning on it wondering when they will be done.

This young girl was a trooper and I am glad she was able to take part in the event as many people in the community come to see the live nativity and remember Christ's birth during this season. When it's cold and standing for a half hour at a time for multiple shifts can be long for a kid:)

Josh was really wanting to do some work with his hands since he had the time and break from school. So he had the idea to make an entryway table for my parents. They just recently got a new front door and have been working on redecorating the living room and entryway. Josh did most of the work of course but I helped with some small cutting, drilling, sanding and taking pics for the blog:) The only thing I realized is that we didn't take a finished product picture because we left in a rush to head home a day late because I was sick on Saturday.

I drilled those holes:)

So the final product looked like the table Josh originally made for our hallway in our apartment at the seminary. Nice slim look with a dark stain.

Here are a couple pics from the kids concerts and Christmas celebrations before we arrived:

Congratulations to Jon and Tara! They got engagement on Christmas morning:)