Awful Horrible Terrible Swim Lessons

Nathan has been taking swim lessons twice a week at a recently opened Aqua Tots.
When I ask if Nathan is excited about his swim lesson, he grimaces and says he doesn't want to go.
When I ask if Nathan has any fun at his swim lessons, he scowls and says no.
When I ask if Nathan wants to go to his swim lesson, he adamantly says no way.


















Yeah, I can see your not having one iota of fun. You know what you little stinker?  You can't fool me!

Can't Move? Improve!

This was the tagline in a recent advertisement that gave me a chuckle. The housing situation across the country is pretty dire as market values continue to plummet. While we wait for the market to bounce back, we have embraced making home improvements.

I recently posted about the completed tile throughout the house. Ironically, during the tile installation, we overhauled our laundry room. Unfortunately, I remember to take 'Before' pictures after I empty out a space, so it's not a good depiction of what the set up was like prior to but trust me it was pitiful!

Here is Greg installing the cabinets in our laundry room:


Cabinets installed, yeah!


Here is the Laundry room today.  Never mind the awesome 80's almond colored dryer, that was given to us by Greg's grandparents.  I have no idea how old it is but it's like the Energizer Bunny, it just keeps on going and going!


This is where we hang our hats (lol), post invitations, and place our stuff when we get home.


Just some colorful touches to make the space fun.


Some storage bins and an extra shelf for laundry baskets. Oh and a chandelier. Hahaha!


Bonus picture of my OCDness. I love clear bins with labels. When I look in this cabinet, it totally makes me happy!


Shortly after the tile installation was complete, I decided to make a space for Nathan's toys downstairs.  At the time, we had a custom made shelf that Greg built to house 8 canvas 12x12 bins in our family space where we stuffed all of Nathan's toys.  Whenever Nathan played with his toys it was in the direct path to the bathroom - completely inconvenient and a total mess.

So I took all of this storage, out of this closet:




And made this closet, a toy space:



I added this sheet as a curtain to hide the shelf and vacuum accessories.




And much to my delight, Nathan's toys are contained and out of the way!






Our completed projects are so timely considering the milestone we will soon recognize...any guesses what that might be?  Anyone?

Drop Ins Welcome

Last week, we had the surprise of a unscheduled-unplanned-unbeknownst to me visit from my dad. While I know this is just how my dad rolls, as in flying by the seat of his pants, it just catches me off guard when I get that call that says he's dropping in and "See you in 2 hours."

It had been 3 years since our last visit, so it was certainly due time. As a result, Nathan needed time to warm up to his Grandpa again. However, Grandpa had some tricks up his sleeve.

Trick #1 - Playtime. Once you sit on the floor to actually play and 'spend time' with Nathan - you're IN.




Trick #2 - Donuts. Give this kid something sweet to eat and suddenly your best buddies. Reminds me of another Hull I know.




Here's Nathan showing Grandpa his newly found fishing skills.


Trick #3 - Trains. Grandpa bought Nathan some more track pieces and a new train. Pretty much sealed the deal, Nathan's friendship can be so easily bought it's not even funny.


We had a great visit with my dad. Not sure when we'll see him again, as I understand it, he's going on tour this fall.


Seriously just kidding. ;)

Surviving Super Summer

When Super Summer arrives, follow the survival steps below:

1. Take action when Super Summer temperatures are reached.


2. Gather kids.


3. Take said kids to any form of water recreation.








It's the only way to survive!

Monsoon Season

As I listen to the rolling thunder and distant crackling of lightening, I'm a little worried about Greg because he's at a softball game...'out there'. It's 'Monsoon Season' in Arizona.  I drove home just as the storm started to roll in - heavy wind gusts kicking up dust so thick I could barely see the road.  As I sit in the quiet of our house, I can hear the wind whipping around our house, wreaking havoc in yards as outdoor objects fly aimlessly around.

You may not live in an area where you experience Monsoon Season so here's a little brush up on what it is and what it looks like.

An explanation I found online:

During the monsoon, or summer thunderstorm season, Arizona experiences more severe weather than many other states. On rare occasion, a severe storm may spawn a tornado. More often, high winds, dust and severe downpours resulting in flash floods are common monsoon occurrences.

Here is a video of a 5 mile wide, 70mph dust storm that came in earlier this week:




Here's a time lapse of the same storm on July 5th 2011:


The Phoenix Haboob of July 5th, 2011 from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo.


Freaky, right? Scary too.

Trade out for Tile Completed

The DIY (do it yourself) house project replacing the linoleum flooring for ceramic tile throughout the house is finally complete!  Insert happy celebration right here...wait for it...here it is....Whoohooo!!  Yippee!!  WOOT-WOOT!!!   Yay!!!  Loud NOISES!!

Wow.  It is so much nicer and perhaps it's just a mental issue for me but it just 'feels' cleaner to me.  That nasty linoleum flooring always felt d-i-r-t-y.  The house feels sanitary now and I just love that feeling.


Nathans Bathroom Before:

After:

Next, Greg created a pathway for our entry into the family room.  Here's a series of Before and Afters:

(a little bonus, look who's sitting at the table eating breakfast!)

Greg then worked on the kitchen.  I forgot to take a Before picture at this angle but here's a a picture of the kitchen floor right after we moved in the house.

After tile installation:

Before:

After:

Just a few more.

Here's to the man that made it all happen.....here's to Tile-man!

Next up....laundry room makeover....