Happy Leap Year Day

Does that even sound right?!
Should it just be Happy Leap Day?
Happy Feb 29th?
Happy Day that doesn't Exist every 3 out of 4 years?!

Not much going on around the casa.
Testing at school for the kids.
Ortho appointments.
Work, work, work for me.
And the husband.

It's like any normal day.

So to make it slightly abnormal... I give you Isabel....

Oh the skills and talents that one has.
And I am not just talking about the self-portraits either.

Hope you have a wonderful day, regardless of how you celebrate it!

xoxo,
me

Seeing Green

I love this time of year (well, after all of the February Germies go away).

This is the time of year where I start seeing GREEN!!

I am talking about my lovely Ash tree.

Here she is after being planted in January 2011:

In February 2011:

In early April 2011:

And now:

Isn't she lovely?!
She's just started to get her leaves back, waking up from her winter hibernation period.

Her trunk is thicker, her branches are thicker and longer. I am pleased!

I spent this past Saturday morning at a workshop hosted by our electric company. It talked about how shade trees can help keep your house cooler. It shared the types of trees that work best in our area and how and where to plant them. They then provided TWO FREE trees!! So, I will be planting them in my backyard this weekend. They are desert like trees, so they need less water (yay, since I don't have the watering system in the back yard yet).

So, I see some gardening in our very near future!!

A little Sneak Peek

I am nearly complete with my Office/CraftRoom makeover.
48 hours, ha!

I watch DIY and HGTV, I should have known better and doubled my time.
And take in account sick kids, time spent at a certain dealership, etc, etc, etc...

My personal computer isn't set up yet, so I am limited with what I can share...

But here's a sneak peek:

I AM alive, despite what you must think...

So. Much. To. Tell.

Later, though. Work needs my attention first.

Be back soon!

xoxo,
me.

Doorway to the Unknown

Puppies can be scaredy cats, no?

We are in the midst of some house projects... One that has been a long time coming is installing a doggie door.  We looked at several different options and ultimately decided on a model from Petco, that installs into the wall.

Marcos completed the task yesterday and did a fine job.

Now if we can just convince the pups that having their own door is a great thing. And that if they just use their noggins to push the flaps, they can come and go as they please.

The second picture on the bottom row?! That's Ellis' head. She's just not sure of the darn thing. So, like any normal little sis would do, Olive pushed past her and was the first to try out her new entrance.

Lucky dogs.

I need more books...

I am totally in love with my new Billy the Bookcases. Even though I have six more to put together.
I am slowly working to fill them up with books and nicknacks... Right now, I have more of the latter.

This post is just a sneak peak. Once I get my living room back in order, I will definitely share more!

Team Ayala

Now, more than ever, it is important for me to have our family realize that we are a TEAM.  Not just to realize... but to APPRECIATE the fact that we have 'teammates' we can count on. I say this because we are all going at different speeds, focusing on different things, and going every which way.

One of the most important life lessons involves teamwork.

When we work as a team, we have the ability to accomplish things we might not have been able to as an individual.

With three teenagers in the house, I am constantly relating things to the 'real world.' In fact, I think one of my most said remarks is "I would be fired from my job if ________________."  <--- insert a variety of things there, like:

"I was late every single day."
"I didn't turn in a project on time."
"I talked to my boss that way."

Sometimes the kids just roll their eyes, but most of the time I am able to break through to them. Even if just for a moment.

There are six people, two dogs and one hamster living in this house. We are a team. (not that Ellis, Olive or Dunbar are able to help out much, but we still count them; our mascots maybe?!!)  It is important that we focus on working together, moving forward, and getting things done.

When I say 'things'... I mean homework, studying, cleaning, chores, lending an ear, offering up a band-aid, or watching each others back. I also mean working together to keep each other safe.

One of the reasons why I mention teamwork is because I can't tell you how many times I've gotten home late, or came down stairs after the house was supposedly locked up, to find lights on, doors unlocked and scary chaos. Not only does this scare the Beezus & Ramona out of me, but it makes me realize that sometimes, some of my family members have a complete disregard for our safety.

We are in the process of installing a new doggie door... which is kind of scary. More than just dogs have been known to enter through them, right?! Heck, Alex was shoved through my parent's doggie door when ever we needed to get into their house well until he was 10 or 11.

I decided to get the family a little more organized... I came up with a check list that will need to be filled out EACH night. Not only will it serve as a reminder to lock things up and secure the house, it will hopefully install the team work value a little more. Not one person is responsible for securing the house and keeping us all safe... we ALL are.  If only one person were responsible, we run the risk of missing something.

But that's where our new checklist comes in...

There are two lists to a page, and each night, whomever decides to handle the task, will sign their name indicating the task is complete.

I have the clipboard hanging in a convenient place, next to the fridge.  Which means I took off the fork and spoon (I am going to find a new home for them.)

This is the first of many team activities I have planned for around the house. I am in the middle of updating our chore list and then also working on after school activities. Pretty soon it will be summer, and that means a whole lot more planning that needs to be done.

Team Ayala is just getting started...

Blinded by the Light

Well... not so much anymore.

I was going through my archives... and this is the best picture I could find of my front door and the windows that flank each side.

This was obviously taken last Halloween. I don't normally have bats flying around.

See those window coverings? I love them. Sheer and Pretty. Pretty and Sheer.
The husband hated them. He said people could see in.

So?!?!

Anyway, our trip to Home Depot this week took us down the blind aisle. And I decided to go ahead and pick up some blinds for those skinny windows.

We had to cut them down to 15 7/8. See? Skinny.

You know I LOVE LOVE LOVE Holly's front door. While I can't have exactly what she has, I want to get close. Her windows are skinnier than mine (jealous!), so I cannot leave them without something covering up their bits and pieces...

So, I decided to go with white wooden blinds, instead of the dark brown blinds I have throughout the rest of downstairs. I think they will look much better with the white molding we plan on adding.

Now... please note that nothing is in its place right now... That area looks awfully blank.
But I promise you, every time I look towards the front door, I giggle. I love the look of the white blinds hanging there.

I will get a better picture as soon as I put my house back in order.

Besides the front door, we are also concentrating on a door for the 4-legged creatures. That's been a hassle for sure. Looks like we will have to use a wall one... Yay, stucco patch and paint. Fun.

Not.

Anyway... I have blinds. I have so much more to do and share.
But first, must get my real work done. This momma needs paper. =)

xoxo,
me

Flying Solo

Well... you know I went to IKEA on Tuesday.
Someone has to put the darn bookcases together. And I was too excited to allow them to just sit in their boxes, in the formal living room. Since the office is not quite there, but the formal living (going to be turned library), is ready to go, I decided to put those together first.

Uhem. Well, at least one of them.

And I did all by myself.
(Alex did help lift one side up for me to piece the thing together but it took all of 4 seconds, promise.)

There... in that picture above... lies proof that someone (may or may not be the one I am married to) didn't lift a finger. He normally does EVERYTHING around the house, so I was okay with taking charge of this particular project.  =) If you read this (like he did last night) - LOVE YOU BABE!

I am a LONG way from being done.

1) Keyboard is not staying there.
2) I want to add an extension to the bookcase, they were out.
3) The brown encyclopedia's (second shelf) are from 1955! That's even from before my Mom was born (but not my dad).
4) The Time Life books, on the third shelf, to the right... from 1976. Same age as me, and in just as perfect condition.  =)

I have to build the other one which will flank the window to the right. And then I have to fill the suckers in.
I am sooo excited.

Seriously, I stared at that lone bookcase all night!!

Lots more goodies to share this week. The husband and I went on a date to Home Depot last night.

YAY!

xoxo,
me

♥ Coma ♥

I know that a coma is nothing to laugh at...
but still....

I went to IKEA yesterday afternoon with Alex and his friend Doug (love Doug!).
I am ready to start my office makeover... just needed some stuff.

Did you know they sell THESE at IKEA?!

Me neither. But I picked one up... just in case they were sold out, next time I went.
And there WILL be a next time because they were sold out of the extensions for the Billy bookcases. I want my bookcases taller, baby!

Yes, if you took the time to look past the Santa Fe-ish couch, you can see that there are EIGHT bookcases.
And a whole bunch of other things, some for the office makeover and some for around the house.
And there's that boy again.

After the 3 hour round trip to IKEA and back... The husband took me out to dinner (I rewarded the kids with burritos from their favorite joint, Doug got to stay too!)...

As soon as the husband got home, I was presented with these beauties:

Momma likey!
And I am thankful he didn't have to fight the red roses crowd. He knows what color I LOVE.

Marcos and I had a nice, quiet dinner at Olive Garden at 9pm last night. We were going to stay up and watch a movie. I think I feel asleep almost the minute my butt hit the bed.

I was in a Love/IKEA coma.

So much love, so much IKEA.

Now... who's going to help put all EIGHT bookcases together. Any takers?!?!

Put a fork in me...

I am done.

I have had these lovely utensils hanging for a long while now.
Since we bought the house.  They are from Hobby Lobby...  they still sell them.

When I went back into the model of our house a while back, I realize that the model had the SAME exact utensils hanging in the same exact spot as I. I don't remember them from our initial tour, but it MUST be where I got the idea. Crazy.

They took up valuable wall space where they were, so I knew I wanted to move them.
P.S. The plant hasn't been there for ages. That space is where my pie safe now resides.

Anyway, I decided to spruce the spoon and fork up a little, before finding a new home for them.
Between the Before and During picture, they were at least 5 different colors. In a 48 hour period.

I wanted bright yellow. Then blue. Then aged yellow. Then aged blue...
Then silver.

Here they are in their new home.

Thoughts?

Since I asked... I thought I would love them there. But maybe it's the silver I am not loving?!
I may try them above the pantry door... in silver. But if not, then I am may go back to this same space, but with the bright yellow color.

Okay... now *your* thoughts.

P.S. Anyone need a knife?!

Happy V-Day, Peeps

It's Valentine's Day... and I feel like I am out of it.

Too much work, too much on my mind... not enough LOVE.

This is the first year I haven't had to do Valentine's cards at all. Isa is in 7th grade, not cool mom. Alex is in H.S. - he has only ONE Valentine. And Nic is a pre-school dropout.

I did give Abby and Isa a large bag of candy each, V-Day style, to hand out to friends or random people (wouldn't that make your day, if someone randomly gave you a Valentine?!)

Alex had me at the store yesterday evening to pick out flowers for his girlfriend, Deanna. I blog about this, only because I don't want to forget it. He didn't want me taking his picture... but I swore I wouldn't put it on Facebook. THIS isn't Facebook. :)

There are several different outtakes of this pic... normally he wouldn't be smiling so... But I forced him to.
I'm the momma.

Guess who was up this morning searching for tissue paper and ribbon?! That kid owes me.
I couldn't let him give her the flowers in the clear plastic wrap. I would be so embarrassed.
My motto...?! If you are going to do something - go all the way and do it right.

It's all about presentation... I tell him. He shakes his head and says that it's what's inside that counts.
Hmph. But at least we raised him right.  BTW, three red roses for their three months together. Nice.

Speaking of "WE".....
I can't wait for the husband to get home tonight. We are having ♥ shaped burgers and fries... and there will be a few mushy things for the love of my life.

I hope your Valentine's Day is wonderful and merry and bright! ;)

If you don't have a Valentine... consider adopting me. I like chocolate.

xoxo,
me

MoodBoard: Office/Craft Room

I might as well call this my chick cave. My office/soon to be craft room is where I spend a LOT of time. Especially since I actually work from home 40-50 hours a week.

The Great Goodwill Find of All Time (aka my new desk) is what prompted me to rethink everything about the space.

Here are a few 'before' shots:

 

Dancing Green by Sherwin Williams. Loved it. Past tense.

Yeah, right. It hasn't been this clean since the day we moved in.

If I showed you a CURRENT shot. You'd boo me off of the Internet. It's a landing place.

Quick, guests are coming, shove everything into the office!!

Well, it won't be anymore. I declare.

I've put together a little mood board... I was in the mood, so I did. :)

Thanks in part to Thrifty Decor Chick for her Board & Batten. IKEA because they are soooo goood toooo meee. Goodwill for that desk. Martha for her pretty, pretty paint and Pinterest for random gray and yellow shots.

I am seriously giving myself a deadline. I want this DONE.
The only thing holding me back, is that do I not have a chop saw. My dad does, so I may go steal it.

The first thing I am going to do is go to IKEA, grab up the stuff I need there... and then also work on my desk. I want IKEA and the desk done by Sunday. That's less than a week folks.

Can she do it?!

Tune in to find out!! (or "Like" QOTC on Facebook for play-by-play updates)

Dun Dun Dunnnnnn.

xoxo,
me

Goodness Gracious...

I heart Goodwill!

My sister-cousin (you know, someone who's closer than just a cousin?!) decided that we needed a day to Goodwill hop. And boy did we!!??!!

Bri's mom, my lovely Aunt Anita joined on the fun! We started at 10am in the morning at Goodwill #1.
Where I scored.

MAJORLY.

So much so, that I've decided to rethink my entire green office. I love the green, but I've decided to go another way.  Look at this sweetie pie:

We are thinking, because of the capped legs... maybe 50s or 60s!? All this loveliness for a mere 59 dollar store toys. I know... right?!?!

She will not be brown, she will not be white... You will just have to wait to see, but let me assure you... I *am* giving myself a deadline to get her completed.

In addition to the desk, I found this SOLID filing cabinet. It's maybe 4" tall and SOLID. Oh, mentioned that already. Also old. It makes me think of an old military one.

Now, as the picture alludes... she will be white. Yummy.

I found a ton of odds and ends, too many to put in this post for now... but I do want to share this yellow frame I found. I like it a lot!

Well, maybe I love it. ;)

Finally... I am not a sewer. I wish, but I am not. But my cousin Bri (who is) got me to start looking at some fabric today... and now I have 100 million ideas.

But first?! Must.Get.Sewing.Machine. Pronto.

Look at some of this fabric stuff I picked up for on the cheap at the G:

I even picked out a valance... there was just one... so I quickly turned it into a table runner. Easy!

I have so many projects to keep me busy... but the first one (well, maybe second one - still need to finish my stenciled wall)... is my Office Makeover.

It was a fantastic day from start (10am) to finish (6pm). So much fun with my cousin and my aunt.

We can't wait to do it again (after our to-do lists are complete, that is!)

xoxo,
me

Dare I say it?

Saturday was SUNNY and SPRINGY and SEVENTY-FIVE!

We had all of the kids outside with us weeding, planting, cleaning, sweeping, blowing, raking, etc.
For about 3 hours.

Whew. One more thing off of my to-do list.

Thank gosh for sweet helpers!

Even though it's still very early in the year... we live in Arizona, and sometimes Spring just comes early. I noticed some leaves growing in our newly planted roses.

We added some flowers to the front yard... I trimmed up our little palms out front...
And we planted a new plant in the side yard.  That poor side yard area has been dug up so many times.
I think this is the 4th [and final] plant/tree thingy.  Bottom right, that's a Split Leaf Philodendron. I love the feel of it... as in tropical! ;)

The grass is still dormant... I suspect, over the next few weeks, it will start growing in green again.
With the front yard finally cleaned up, I am one happy momma!

Until I realize that the backyard is still dirt. Groan!! I feel like we aren't ever going to get the rest of the lot done!

Well... we *are* going to be adding a third driveway in this month... on the right side of the house. It will lead back to the RV gate and side yard.

Why, you ask?!

A new [to us] car. She's a 2011 Mazda 3 and the husband has been driving her mostly. She has a sun-roof. [SWOON!]

That means that as soon as a certain teenager gets off his butt and gets his license, he will have the small truck to drive. Thus, we need an additional parking space.

The original plan, when we did the landscaping, was to build a paver driveway. But, we held off and have since decided to go with concrete.

Can't wait until that's done! Hopefully soon!

Spring is in the air (I did dare to say it)... and I am loving life.

I ♥ My 'New' Table

I know I've already shown you the mostly completed family room coffee table [you know, the $12 find?!]

But, what I failed to mention is that my super sweet husband stayed up late on Thursday night to poly the baby.  And now that it's dry... and back in place... I wanted to show it off one more time.
 

Of course I cannot take all of the credit for it (except for the fact that it was I racing through Goodwill, dodging peeps, straight towards the purdy thing and I was the one who decided on the Jacobean color).

Marcos and Alex spent hours sanding it down, getting the smoke smell out of it... and then staining it lovely colored. I will note that I *may* have touched the hand-held sander at one point. And I did go out to supervise once or twice.

Isabel and Marcos carried it in from the garage this morning. So, even my girlie got in on the fun!

So... please help me congratulate my wonderful family... for their time, energy and mad DIY skills...
I owe them a good, home-cooked dinner tonight.

Anyone wanna do the cookin' for me?

See who I am linking up to:

Check this out...

It was made from a program called Tagxedo. There are so many different options, colors, etc to choose from.
Go here to find out more.

I used my blog address and it came up with all of the words from my blog. Like a tag cloud.
Only cuter.

How clever.

Blog Hop - Linky Follower

With Google Friends Connect going bye-bye... the great people at Linky Tools has created a way for us to continue to collect friends! ;)

Join in the fun... It's a Blog Hop! Take a look around the blogs below - if you find something you like, follow them using the Linky Followers tool.

Linky Followers is free, easy and has a lot of fantastic features for following all your favorite friends. You don't have to have a blog to follow others, so check it out.

Rules:
1. You must have the Linky Followers tool on your site to participate.
2. You must follow the person who has the party on their site as a thank you.
3. Grab the Blog Hop code (at the bottom of the links) and join in

Flaunt it Friday... #1

I don't think there are enough Link Parties in the world. So I wanted to add my own. =)

 You know... an easy way for me to find people, blogs, cool things... without too much work! ;)
And a way for you to FLAUNT what you've been working on or doing around the house, work or your community... Really anything goes!

RULES:

Please link no more than three items/ideas/recipes/widgets, etc for this particular party.
There will be a Link Party every Friday... so come back and share more next Friday for sure!

Please link directly to your post. 
Please do not link to the main page of your blog, any other Link Parties, or any contests or giveaways.

Please add my button to your post... 
Made that super simple for you... Copy and paste the HTML code below.

<center><a <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">href</span>="http http://www.<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">queenofthecreek</span>.com /"><<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">img</span> border="0" <span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">src</span>=" http://1.<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">bp</span>.<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">blogspot</span>.com/-MYwmLeE2NWI/TzU3-<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">apELhI</span>/AAAAAAAAF4Y/NSW3cJufrqw/s1600/flaunt+little+button.<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word">jpg</span> "/></a></center>

It's really THAT simple. Let's get this party started!!

Don't forget, I will be back for sure on Sunday night to post some fun things I've found out in Blogland... in my new weekly Clever! post.

Almost a teenager...

I am slowly dying inside...

 When Isabel was little, I worked a 3-midnight shift. I feel like I missed out a lot on both kids (Nic wasn't around yet) during those 2 years. But we did what we had to do to keep them out of daycare, etc.

Isabel has grown up. She will be 13 in April.
It's not always been easy. In fact, call my mom (867-5309) and she will tell you that there are times when I've called her crying, screaming, begging for her to let me come home.

She just laughed her EVIL laugh...

 

And said, "PAYBACK, BABY!!!!"

I whimpered. Why does she have to be some mean?! *I* think I was a good girl.

Enough about mom and me. This post is about Isabel.

Isabel, when it's just the two of us, or her and Marcos... is the sweetest, dorkiest, funniest, wittiest, girl... ever. (I think she gets that from me!!!).... 

 

But if her brothers, her cousin or washing the dishes are involved, WATCH OUT!

We are taking raising Isabel day-by-day... as patiently as possible. It's a phase. She will outgrow it when she's thirty five. We can handle this. 

There are those moments when I want to pull my hair out...

And there are those moments, like this morning, when she came to me asking if I could help straighten her hair (she just got her hairs cut, too!!).  

If I do say so myself... Isabel looks stunning today! 

It's Pride Day at school. She goes to a Charter School... and since the Jr. High students have had an awesome semester so far, they decided to give them a day to dress down and to have a party at school, with music and snacks, etc. 

She asked if we could go get a new outfit for the occasion.

Last night, we were at Tilly's getting her shirts. She begged for new Vans, I caved on new shoe laces for her current Vans. lol...  Since Tilly's doesn't sell jeans in a size larger than super-skinny, no meat on the bone, we took a chance on Tar-Jay. And scored. They had the gray skinnies on clearance for less than eight bucks.

I think she looks adorable and grown up - ALL AT THE SAME TIME.

 

It's hard to believe that the big ONE THREE is right around the corner... and that I will officially have two teen aged kids. 

Off to get medicated.

P.S. Just kidding about the medicated part. Maybe.

P.S.S. You didn't think I'd give out my momma's REAL phone number, did you?!

P.S.S. Happy Friday!!