What do I do all day?

When I was in junior high, I remember asking my Mom what she did during the day. I seriously wanted to know what a Mom does at home all day, whatever it was it had to be better than the Creative Writing class that I was taking. I will never forget my Mom's response, "I don't remember, but I haven't sat down all day so I must have been doing something!" We just laughed and I might have thought that my Mom was a weirdo... who can't remember what they have been doing the last 6 hours.

This week, I've had multiple "this is what my mother was talking about" experiences. For example, last night I sat down on the couch to help Karsten with spelling and realized that I hadn't sat down all day and sitting really felt good. So good in fact that I laid down and was still laying around long after Karsten had mastered his spelling. I kept wondering to myself 'why am I so tired?". I tried and tried to think of what I had done during the day that made me feel so tired, I could not remember what I had done. I am a weirdo.

This morning as I was putting laundry away, I remembered something that I had done sometime in the near past. We have recently switched the bedrooms around. The boys are sharing the small room with bunk beds and Taegan scored the larger room with a full size bed. Anyway, I re-did the boys closet so I could get rid of the dresser. I am happy with how it turned out, but reminded of how much I.HATE.TO.PAINT!

I had to go back to when we moved into the house to get a picture of what the closets used to look like.

This is not the boy's closet but theirs is similar just smaller. Metal bi-fold doors that extend to the POPCORN ceiling. BARF! Anyways, we (and when I say we, I mean Karsten, Taegan and I) pulled down all the metal doors and I put in some organizers (mostly just shelves and double hanging areas) because I thought new doors would go back on in a few months.

Fast forward, 5 years and another kid and we still didn't have closet doors. The POPCORN ceilings were gone, but so were the closet doors. It just kept getting pushed to the bottom of the priority list, I guess. I actually have thrown away the list because it was getting too long.

Here is the boys new closet.

This was more difficult than I expected. I just shoot from the hip on most projects. Doors that reach the ceiling were 3x the cost and even then I would need to 'fill' that area above where the track is. No room for double hang doors, so I had to build a frame to fit the stock doors. I think it turned out ok for a rookie.

One side is the drawers and storage and the other is for hanging.

Painted, stained, pulls, glides, handles, hung, crown, DONE.

Now onto Taeg's!

Moneyball

Last night, Melis' and I watched Moneyball -- it's the (mostly) true story of Oakland A's GM Billy Beane and his effort to put together a competitive baseball team on a comparatively small budget.  I say "mostly" true because Hollywood altered the story a little to make for more compelling cinema.  For example, Billy Beane is played by (ahem) Brad Pitt.

Someday, Hollywood will tell my story too...

First Tee

Happy New Year!

Melissa Dearest gave me the gift of golf for Christmas -- a pre-paid gift card at a local golf course.  I've always favored this particular golf course for its covered driving range -- it's pretty nice.

After finishing work this afternoon, I invited Karsten and Taegan to join me on the range.  They eagerly accepted and grabbed Karst's clubs.  He only has two -- but that technically still qualifies as "clubs."  Taeg' had never swung a golf club at an actual golf ball before -- so she was particularly excited.

Our excitement turned to disappointment, however, upon pulling into the empty clubhouse parking lot and seeing a sign announcing that the whole facility was closed for the holidays.  Argh!

Because someone might care

This is for my sister that lives in a totally different country, called OHIO.  She and her family were the last people to use our guest bathroom before we gutted it.  I am sure they will be sad about some of the changes that we have made, but change is good.  Here are a few:

Upon entry of this bathroom you were greeted with a fabulous vanity with a teal counter top with doors that were crooked and a storage mirror thingy above the sink.

Happy Thanksgiving to me!

Remember my bathroom?  Don't pretend you don't.

It looked like this in July!

The Happiest @*#&! Place On Earth

A couple weeks ago, our family returned from an alternate universe called Disneyland. I can sense your knowing smile coming right through the interwebs.  Yes, everyone's been to The Magic Kingdom before. Everyone, that is, other than our family, a handful of Amish, and a solitary Kalahari bushman who cannot overcome his fear of flying.

We figured we should finally get down there and see what all the fuss is about.  Take heart Kalahari bushman, we drove the whole way!

About Time

Travis Update:

Trav' got a shiny new diesel car in September and thank goodness.  I was tired of being chauffeur for over a year.  We are very grateful for the 2nd ride.  I just need to convince Langdon and Travis to accept a little Zen attitude like Charlie Crews and repeat "I am not attached to this car" frequently.  Langdon constantly goes over to the window to look for his Dad's car and ask for a ride.

It's our blogiversary!

Three years ago this week, Melis' noticed I was on the computer and told me matter-of-factly, "I think I want a blog.  Make it happen."

Within an hour or two, I turned out our very first post.  Pretty profound stuff, I know.

Just for fun, I decided to pull up our old blog title headers.

2008

No, we were not graduating from mime school in 2008 or emerging from a subterranean cavern for the first time in years.  For some reason we were just really white.

helpers

This past weekend... or is it... this last weekend.  Anyway.  This last past weekend, we were in Pendleton.  For some reason we stay in Pendleton less than 48 hours.  Maybe we fear that we will start wearing wranglers if we stay too long.

Seven

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Karst'!

 We love ya.

Relationships

Over the 4th of July weekend we had a family reunion with my side of the family tree.  It was awesome.  It was in Sun River.  It was warm.  I took NO pictures.  I am lame.

Kim's family came back to Eugene with us for a couple of days.  They caught a flight at the crack of dawn.  It was fun.  It was awesome.  I am fatter because of them.  I did take one picture of them playing the Wii.  I am lame.

I am not sure who is doing the correct dance moves, but I am guessing Langdon or Jace.

Lazy Days of Summer

While we hadn't actually planned it -- we took a whole month off from blogging.  It's not that we haven't been up to anything -- I built a new home theater PC to replace our Tivo in the AV cabinet (recording two TV shows at the same time just wasn't enough -- we must record four shows at once!) and Melis' built some more fencing before gearing up for the first of three bathroom remodels.  The kids have been enjoying the warmer weather.

Eventually we'll return to our normal blogging schedule -- but for now we invite you to look at the excellent sports photography presented by Teresa's Neighbor.

Gleneden Beach

It seems like just a few weeks ago, we were taking Langdon on his first visit to the Oregon Coast.  This month we rejoined the rest of the Stoddard clan at Gleneden Beach (south of Lincoln City) to play in the surf and remind ourselves that our little stretch of the Pacific is friggin' freezing!

Epic Saturday

Friday evening Melissa proposed that we take Langdon on his first ascent of Spencer Butte.  She's always the one who proposes outdoorsy, physically demanding stuff.  I generally propose weekend activities like, "Let's see who can take the longest nap!"  The kids love hiking Spencer, even though Karst' remarked it would take us "a few days" to reach the top.  Hopefully, that was just a conservative estimate.  It only took us 45 minutes.

whatta you got

 I've got a friend (now, don't be acting all surprised...) that lets me build crap for her house.  This was her latest request.

Inspirational thought of the day

Photo courtesty of Teresa's Neighbor

I tried to throw a yo-yo away. It was impossible.

Reading the Oregonian this morning, there was a blurb about tomorrow being the six-year anniversary of the death of comedian Mitch Hedberg.  Years before succumbing to a drug overdose, he joked: "I used to do drugs.  I still do drugs.  But I used to, too."  Some of Mitch's material is not appropriate for a family blog like this, but he had a gift for making hilarious observations about everyday life.

A lot of times, I'll drive for like 10 miles with the emergency brake. That doesn't say a lot for me, but it really doesn't say a lot for the emergency brake.

Spring weather! (For a limited time only)

Lately, the weather forecast in Eugene has been a total cut-and-paste affair.

Don't get too excited about that happy little cloud next to Sunday -- experience tells us that it will soon turn to a sad rainy icon within the next couple days.  Good thing Vitamin E is available in pill form!

We've become accustomed to the dreary gray skies of a Willamette Valley winter.  We're acclimated to the daytime temps that are high enough to prevent (super-fun) snow, but still too low to dry out the cold muddy ground under our feet.  That's why yesterday was so awesome.  And by awesome, I mean totally sweet!

Pets

Taegan:  Mom, can I get a pet?

Mom:  What kind of pet?

Taegan:  A dog!

yay

IT REALLY IS EASIER TO WALK THAN TO CRAWL!

Now if we could only convince him to wear socks...