My {other} Baby

 All week, I lovingly cared for a big pile of wood to turn it into this:

Ben's gift for our 10-year-anniversary

To be honest, it was not hard at all.  Building the bed was a piece of cake- it was the sanding, assembly and finishing that took a long, long time. 

Here's what I started with:

I have never liked our bedroom- at all.  I LOVED our comforter set when I first saw in on the shelf (at WalMart, of course).  But I did not like it nearly as much when I finally got it on our bed at home. 

I bought the headboard and footboard several years ago at D.I. in Cedar City, when I was visiting my parents.  I think I paid $30, we couldn't afford a real fancy bed set, and at the time I thought that something was better than nothing.  I bought it and hauled it home, not realizing that it needed siderails, so for the past several years, our bed has been on a metal frame and the footboard has been just leaning against the bed- looking stupid.  Then I built a bench to go at the end of our bed- I pushed it up against the footboard to make it stand up straight. 

Back to the new bed- I could not wait to start building (although I was a bit nervous to actually make the first cut).  I built the headboard in just a few hours one day- and the footboard in another.  I built it all by myself- with the exception of one stuck screw that Ben got out for me.  :)

 

Then the REAL work began.  Sanding, sanding and more sanding.  And then more sanding.  (My friend, Cinda, an experienced carpenter, kindly offered to help me sand it one night, but after working on the bed the entire day, I literally could not handle two more seconds of sanding.  Hey- Cinda- could I get a raincheck on that offer for my next project?)

I decided to set the bed up inside to make sure everything would actually come together.  My friend, Kari, stopped by just as I was trying to figure it all out.  Kari built her own house.  Yes- built her house (and she had 4 kids at the time).  Her eyes light up when she sees power tools, so it didn't take too much convincing to get her to stay and help me for a bit. 

 

Everything came together perfectly (go me!), but rather than take it apart to finish it outside, I just decided to do it in our room.  It took several days of staining, sanding, staining, sanding...and Ben picking up all my slack on the housework.  But it's DONE.  And we LOVE it!

 

10 Years

On August 18, 2000, Ben and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple.  I was just 19 at the time- he was 22.  For being so young, I made an awfully good decision choosing Ben for my eternal companion. 

Being so young and naive, I had no idea how quickly "real life" would hit.  We have packed a lot of living into the past 10 years, and there is no one I would rather have had by my side. 

What has gone on the past 10 years???

2 Bachelor's degrees from BYU (his in Animal Science, mine in Horticulture, both of us minored in business)

4 different homes (Provo, Ut; American Falls, ID; Tremonton, UT; Declo, ID)

Several different jobs (Ben: yard maintenance, telemarketing...he lasted two days :), BYU vending, the church's dairy in Elberta, UT, and the MTC before starting his career as at the family dairy; I worked as a bookkeeper, at Sunshine Greenhouses and the BYU Greenhouses and did a little landscape design in college until becoming a full-time mom- my dream job!)

3 vehicles (1990 Toyota Camry, 1989 Ford Aerostar Van...thanks mom and dad!, and our 2000 Honda Odyssey)

Lots of fun trips- we've been to South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, New York, California, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho together

3 different dairies (Ben's worked at three family dairies- Seagull Bay in American Falls, Blue Sky Dairy in Bear River City, Utah and Andersen Dairy here in Declo [the last two he started from scratch...both were enormous undertakings])

1 horrible meal (Mixed Vegetable Casserole, a recipe I tried when we were newlyweds- Ben will never let me forget it- the worst thing I have ever made)

51 months of pregnancy (4 years and 3 months of being pregnant)

6 kids (Tyler Benjamin, Trey Kaden, Sasha Siri, Luke Brandon, Lauren Elizabeth and Samantha Grace)

1 marathon run (wouldn't have happened without Ben's support)

Lots of experience with health problems with our kids (two with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, one with Turner Syndrome [Sasha], two with asthma, one with acid reflux, one with vision problems)

1 child life-flighted to Primary Childrens Hospital

3 heart surgeries

More trips to the ER, ambulance rides, hospitalizations and days spent in the hospital that we can possibly count

Thousands and thousands of doses of meds given

Eight thousand billion visits to the doctor (which means eighty thousand billion hours in the waiting room)

More x-rays, blood draws, echocardiograms and EKGs than I can keep track of

Many, many miles driven to and from the hospital again and again

One little baby who we didn't get to keep

Two very broken hearts

1 funeral for our first baby girl

4 burial plots bought in the Declo cemetery

One battle with depression (me, after losing Sasha)

Countless prayers

Lots of tears

Sleepless nights

Lots of worry

Wonderful family and friends (new and old) who have supported us, lifted us, and helped us out

Healing, blessings, and miracles

New babies...happy hearts...joy again

One wish come true (Trey's treehouse!)

Two kids in school (soon)!

Now it's school, sports, chores, laundry, meals, laundry, yard work, more laundry, diapers, potty training, WalMart, minivan, homework, teaching, holding, worrying, carrying, church, loving, helping, photographing, building, painting, sewing, praying, sweeping, brushing, mowing, more laundry, combing, FHE-ing, playing, cleaning and more cleaning, crying, cooking, snuggling, and laughing (with a little bit of sleeping)

But lots and lots of laughing.

We're exactly where we want to be.

It was kind of a hard road to get here. 

Okay...really, really, really hard at times. 

But I'm with the exact person I want to be with.

Him:

He's wonderful.  And so good to me.

I love you babe!

Thank you for marrying me!

Where I've Been

So, where have I been all this time that I've been M.I.A. on my blog??????

The short answer is

in my garage.

The really long answer?

Stay awhile...I'll show you!

Several months ago, my friend, Kenna, sent me an email with this picture attached:

She had seen it on a blog, and loved it, but didn't really have room for it in her house.  Since our house has a large playroom, she thought I might be interested in building one.

Kenna had NO IDEA that her email was about to open a HUGE can of worms!!!  :)

So I followed her link to this blog post, and after reading it, could not get my mind off of building.  Seriously.  I pored over the blog (previously known as http://www.knock-offwood.com/, now moved to http://www.ana-white.com/), and was fascinated with the idea that women- with no real training in woodworking, and only basic tools, could build some really amazing things.  I have ALWAYS wanted to learn how to build, but as I've mentioned several times on this blog, Ben and I are not handy people.  My dad (and his mother) are two of the most handy people I've ever met, but I figured I did not get the gene.  Many years ago, my grandma even built a treehouse for her kids.  She is amazing, and I've always wanted to be just like her, but I never really thought I had it in me. 

So...all the time the past months I should have spent blogging was spent looking at building plans and reading about building and tools and techniques.  And my mind was always occupied with thoughts of building.  Really.  There were several nights that I could not sleep because my mind was so busy thinking about building.

Since Kenna got me into the building mess in the first place, I forced her to join the fun.  She borrowed her grandpa's miter saw and her husband got some wood for us, and we spent an entire day building picnic tables (one for her, one for me).  Together, we have 8 kids.  At the time, school was still in session, but we had all 8 at some point throughout the day.  It was crazy.  I was pretty useless most of the day.  I have almost no arm muscles (building is hard work), and it seems like I was either nursing Sammi or caring for kids most of the time.  And I didn't know the first thing about building, so Kenna had to teach me everything (Kenna is one of those people who is naturally good at everything, so I'm sure she thought I was complete idiot).  I am left-handed, and making some of the angle cuts with the saw was kind of awkward for me- at one point, she was worried I was going to chop my arm off (I have since learned a bit about safety). 

But after 8+ hours of hard work, we had two of these babies built (minus the painting):

I'm sure that if Kenna had had a competent assistant, it probably would have taken about 2 hours.

After my first real project, I really, really, really wanted to be a builder.  :)  Of course, I had mentioned "building" to Ben, and I'm sure he thought it was just a passing interest. But I was getting so antsy to start building, and was so sick of not sleeping because I was so busy *thinking* about building, that I told him that I really, really, really thought I could do it. The only problem was that we didn't have any tools (except for an extremely weak Black &; Decker drill and jigsaw) and we didn't have any wood.  Ben wanted us to think about it for  few days before we made the decision to invest in tools and wood, but I had already been thinking about it (nonstop) for several weeks.  So we made an agreement- since our ten-year wedding anniversary was coming up (it's next week!), he offered to buy me some tools for my anniversary present, and I promised to build us a bed for his anniversary present (the Farmhouse bed with a canopy- inspired by Pottery Barn from http://www.ana-white.com/)!

I spent much time shopping on the internet for good tools, and was so excited to finally have them delivered.  Next up- buying wood.

I knew nothing about wood, and knew that I would look like a total loser if I went by myself, so I conned Kenna into going to Lowe's with me.

She didn't know what she was getting into, and spent a reeeeeaaallllly long time, helping me pick out good boards.  We even kept her two-year-old, MaKendrie, up way past her bedtime, but she was sooo good. (Sammi?  Not so good). 

Proof:

Finally, the guys at Lowe's had the truck loaded up, and we were good to go.

Except that Kenna is a total perfectionist, and decided the wood wasn't loaded properly (had we noticed what the guys were doing, we would have stopped them!), and we were worried that some wood would be destroyed in the hour-long drive home.  So we pulled over to the Target parking lot and took everything out to reload it correctly (thankfully assisted by the Target cart-pusher guy who seemed to think loading wood in our truck was more exciting than gathering carts).

{Thank you Kenna...you were a sport!}

So, I had a large pile of wood, a few tools I was scared to death to use on my own, and a few hours during naptime to spend building.  Kenna, and her husband, Chip, came over one evening to show me how to use my table saw safely (still scares me to death) and were so patient to answer ALL of my questions (everything from "How on earth are you supposed to sharpen one of those rectangle-shaped carpenter's pencils?" to "Which side of the marking line do you cut on?" and all sorts of other things that most people are probably born knowing).  When they left, I felt ready to tackle some building on my own.

I decided to start with a few cheap, easy projects from the website (ana-white.com) to practice building [mess up on] before attempting to build our bed.  Wnt to see them?

Drumroll please for my first-ever solo building project:

The most awesome thing about Ana's website is that she makes building plans inspired by amazing pieces of furniture (from Pottery Barn, Land of Nod, etc.), but makes everything cheap and easy to build.

She also comes up with awesome plans of her own, like this grocery store hutch that I build Lolly for her birthday (she's two!):

Ben was out of town, and I build it {all by myself!} in an afternoon (painting was a different story- it took days, and I do not love the fact that it looks fluorescent green).

Even the "big boys" love it. 

This bench was really easy, so I built another:

And my kids love to climb on the counter to get things and put them away (usually knocking things off or over), so I built this the other night:

(still waiting for a paint job- the part I do not like).

Up next, a farmhouse-style canopy bed.  I can't wait!!!

Anyone want to come build with me?

If you've ever been interested in building at all, you should totally check out http://www.ana-white.com/ or her facebook page at www.facebook.com/knockoffwood (it is so inspiring to see what others have accomplished). 

If you need me, I'll probably be out in the garage!

We're Making a Comeback!

Stay tuned!!!