Living room transformation

We have lived in our house for almost two and a half years and we just love it! It is three bedrooms and two baths. We have a big bonus room above our garage, a nice size kitchen, a fenced in back yard, and a big formal living room. When we moved in, we brought all of our living room furniture up to the bonus room since that's where we spend most of our time. We didn't have any furniture (or anything else for that matter) in our living room. The only thing in the living room has been my piano (which was my grandparent's) and toys, of course. Last summer, as a gift, mom and dad helped us get laminate flooring to replace the AWFUL carpet that occupied that space. Several times over the last couple of years we have saved up money to purchase some furniture, but we always had other needs arise.

A few weeks ago as I walked in the door after coming home from church, Aaron had his phone out video taping me. I didn't know if I had won a million dollars or if someone was there to surprise me or what. As I reached the top step coming from the garage into the kitchen, I saw something sitting in the living room to my right. A large couch and love seat occupied the once very empty, very bland space. My first thought was "oh goodness...how much did you pay for this?" He explained that our neighbor had come over that afternoon telling him they had gotten new furniture and wanted to know if we wanted their old couch and love seat...FOR FREE! He went over to look at it  brought it back to the house. Please don't misunderstand me. I'm very thankful for our neighbors and thankful they thought of us before throwing it out. They are very clean people and don't have any pets or anything. They didn't smell funny or have any major stains. They are rather large, though, like "Big Comfy Couch" big. They almost swallowed you with big arm rests and mini back cushions.

SO- I decided they would be my project. I enlisted the help of my good friend, Lisa Jones, to help with the transformation. We loaded the boys up in the car and headed to find some bargains. We made a few stops and came home with Euro pillows to replace the back "cushions" and a few other pillows to add some color.

Before putting in the Euro pillows

The nastiness inside the back cushions....we felt the dust mites crawling on us! Ok, that may be exagerated, but YUCK!

It literally took us all day to shop, undo all of the cushions, and make the other pillows, but we finally finished. They look great and feel like brand new couches!

Thanks, Lisa, for helping!!!

VAY-CAY-SHUN

Last Monday, the Pontious crew packed up my little Accord and headed to Newaygo, Michigan for vacation. We spent the week with Aaron's grandparents. Throughout the week, we got to visit with other family, too. We did lots of canning and freezing, visited a produce auction (which was a little taste of heaven for me), went to the lake, visited family members, played LOTS of cards, and just spent some treasured time with Grandma and Grandpa Hubbard.  Here are the events/pictures from the week:
Monday-
We traveled to Michigan, leaving at 6 a.m. The boys were pretty good in the car for the 11 hours there. Desmond was ready to RUN and Lincoln was ready to crawl by the time we finally arrived. We passed through apple and peach orchards and fields and fields and fields of corn and peas. It was beautiful scenery. Aaron and I have always loved to travel together, so it was a fun trip filled with singing, laughter, and much-needed family time.
A few miles away from their house, Aaron and Desmond started singing this sing:

Every night at 9 p.m., we had ice cream. Apparently its a family tradition that I've missed out on for the last 8 years. That may be one that we only take part in on a regular basis at their house, otherwise I'll be the size of a HOUSE.

Tuesday-
Can you say green beans? Aaron, Grandpa, and I snapped green beans while grandma funneled them into the jars. I added the canning salt followed by Grandma filling the jars. We tag-teamed everything all week. She'd place the hot lids on and I would tighten them. She'd place them in the canner and we'd both empty it. We did 4 1/2 bushels of beans that day. WHEW!

Wednesday-

Grandma and I juiced several pecks of blackberries and raspberries for jam. The food juicer was messing up, so it took us a good chunk of the morning. We then packed up and headed to an Amish produce auction about 30 miles away. I forgot to take a picture of it, I was so enthralled with all of the amazing fresh produce and the hard working Amish boys. Aaron and I both noticed how hard they worked, and not one complaint or grumble was heard. They knew what they had to do and they did it. Hopefully one day my boys will have the same work ethic!

Grandpa had taken some squash, green beans, and other produce to sell. We also purchased 27 dozen ears of corn along with the makings for some salsa: roma tomatoes, green peppers, jalepenos, and onions. We went straight home and got to work. We started working on the corn about 1 p.m. and didn't finish until around 10 that night.

In the middle of our corn work, Uncle Terry and Aunt Sherry came by along with Spencer who was leaving for college on Thursday. We only got to see them for a few minutes, but it was nice to get to see them! 

At the end of the night, we were all exhausted, but not exhausted enough to not play some cards!

Thursday-

We went to visit Grandma Pontious, and got a treat to find Aunt Holly was there and then Martina came soon therafter. We visited for a couple of hours. Grandma seemed to be doing well and it was nice to get to visit.

We went to the Grant Depot for lunch...

After our return, we made blackberry jam and then started right into the salsa. We all had different jobs: cutting up the veggies, using the food processor, getting the juice out, measuring the processed veggies, stirring the pot, pouring into the jars, putting the lids on, placing them in the canner....and so on.

Here's how Aaron helped:

Grandma started cutting the onions...and we both had tears streaming down our face. Those were some potent onions!

It was a team effort ! We ended up doing two double batches of salsa.

Friday-

Uncle Dave and Lisa took us out to the lake. Grandma and Grandpa had shuffle board practice and a doctor's appointment, so we gladly went out and had a blast. We rode the tubes and Aaron skiied. There was a sand barge in the middle of the lake. Some of the boys caught crawdads and other kayaked.

 The water was COLD at first!

 Something strange happened with our camera. These would have been great pics...oh, well!

 Lincoln got a good nap in on the boat!

 Desmond and I took the kayak around for a little while, too.

 Lisa and the boys on the tube

We had a wonderful afternoon with them! We returned to have a fire in their firepit. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. They even had hobo pies too. We retired early from such a long and tiring, but fun-filled day with Dave, Lisa, and the boys.

Saturday-
We woke up to a bad storm. The rain was falling sideways from the wind blowing so hard. Aaron was watching out the window as a tree limb fell just a couple of feet away from my car. Thank you, Lord, for watching over our vehicle.

Lincoln watched as things blew over on the back porch.

We packed up after the power went out. Dodging the pouring rain, we got the Car. Loaded. Down. I'm surprised there was room for us in there! Grandma and Grandpa sent a bunch of beans, salsa, jam, and corn back with us. What a lovely treat! We headed for Indiana to visit Uncle Kedric and Aunt Sherry. We had a wonderful dinner with them and loved getting to visit some. The boys took right to them and it was just enough time for Kedric and Sherry to get to know the boys a little bit.

Aunt Sherry pulled out the Bed Bugs game for Desmond to play. He loved it! He also conned others to play with him too!

Sunday-

We went to church with Kedric and Sherry, had lunch with them, and then headed for home. We stopped somewhere in Indiana at an outlet mall, just to do some shopping and let the boys move around out of the car. Desmond wanted to "drive" every "car" we saw, so we let him drive a couple.

We drove through terrible rain storms, but arrived safely home late Sunday night. We were tired from the travels and all of the hard work, but had a great week. We wouldn't trade the time we got to spend with family for anything.

That was our week...we worked hard, but had a blast!