Visit to Tennessee

I forgot to add these pics to the pre-wedding post. We spent Memorial Day at my aunt's house in Orem. First we put flowers on my relatives' graves in Smithfield. Rachel is my stillborn sister. The rose bush on the left refuses to die after several people have tried pulling it out.
After a BBQ, we had my great-gma's recipe for orange ice cream and played some tether-ball. William beat us all, but he got beat up by the tether-ball pole. Lol. We also had a bridal shower for Heather that week.
After the wedding, my parents, sister, and I left for Tennessee. It took us longer than normal b/c we made lots of stops and late starts. It took about 3 1/2 days instead of 2. On the way home, we stopped at my cousins Bruce and Mia's house in Nebraska and had the best steak dinner. Their 3 kids are so sweet and friendly too. We also stopped at the Visitor's Center in Independence, MO and learned some Church history.
Tennessee was extremely hot and humid while I was there. The heat index was over 100 most days. We were doing a ton of projects around the house and we could only work outside til 9 or 10 AM before it got too hot. We got a lot accomplished though. Here are some before and after pics of what we did.

First we weeded and planted the gardens. Excuse my work clothes. I was wearing whatever old clothes I could find in the house. The hat, well, I needed it. :)

Mom told me that the flowers are filling in nicely now.

There were several doors that needed stained/varnished or painted. After a few trips to Lowe's, we finally got all the correct colors of stain/paint. We were happy that on our 3rd visit a different worker was there to help us. And can I just put in a plug that TN (or the south) has the nicest employees of anywhere I've lived/visited? Anyone and everyone will talk to you. I loved it and forgot how nice it is to have friendly cashiers.

The screen door was in need of some paint. The hardest part of this job was taking the heavy door off and putting it back on. Luckily Dad was there to help put it back on.

Before

After

Next was the porch bench. It was weathered and dull, and the black paint was chipped and rusty. I sanded, primed, and painted the black parts (which are probably still sticky-it would not dry!) then sanded, stained, and varnished the wood.

Before

After

My sister is in a wheelchair and the 2 ramps hadn't been painted in years.

This is what the porch ended up looking like.When I went to TN last Aug. we had painted and put a border in Anna's room. This time, we finished decorating and re-doing her doors. I finished painting the BELIEVE letters Mom and Heather had started, then glued on strands of fake pearls to hang them. We hung a sunflower garland above and then hung some pictures and a mirror.

Excuse the mess. It was clean in there until we started painting the other room.

So Anna has this closet door that has had a huge scratch in it since before we moved in (22 yrs ago). It was usually covered with a poster or picture but Mom wanted to try and fix it. We filled in the crack, sanded, then stained and varnished it. Unfortunately, someone before us had tried to put tape over it and the stain really stuck to the old adhesive. If not for that, the crack would barely be noticeable, but we're happy with the result. Now Mom just has to stain the door frame.
Dad and Will had replaced Anna's door adding a lowered and easier to open handle. However, it was primed white and the regular stain and gel stain did not look very good on it. We decided to paint it a dark brown instead. (This is the reason for all our trips to Lowe's). Painting the door frame was the biggest pain. It turned out nicely though. I don't have a pic of it hanging b/c I left before it dried. I'm telling you, nothing dries in TN.
If you know my brother William, you know he's inventive and a little bit destructive (OK, a lot). His old bedroom walls were covered in nail holes and dents and scratches from all his "inventions" and decorating skills. Mom had patched at least 30 holes.
We decided a light blue paint would look nice with some vertical stripes in a slightly darker blue on one wall. We got one coat done before I had to leave and Mom has been able to do a second coat, the trim, paint the wood paneling on the one wall, and now just has to do the stripes. She's also going to make some pretty, white curtains for the windows.

Proof I was there.

There were several other projects we did that I didn't get pictures of such as: making curtains for the bathroom, curtains in Anna's room, completely cleaning and reorganizing the storage room, and cleaning out the shed. The shed clean up consisted of taking down moldy insulation, throwing away old, ruined items, cleaning up dead mice, snake skins, birds nests, mouse nests, scrubbing shelves, sweeping, and reorganizing shelves. I wasn't as motivated for this project, especially after all the spiders and ticks I saw, so Mom has to finish it (sorry!). We got about 1/3-1/2 of it done though. We did the grossest part together. Now she has a lot more room to move stuff from the house out to the shed.

Here we are celebrating that we did everything on our To-Do lists. I did get to see some friends (Stephanie and Holly) and watch some movies with Anna. We also celebrated my mom's b-day and Father's Day (same day this year).
We had a dinner at the branch and I got to help Mom out in primary.

I know it really gave my mom a boost to be able to get some other things done now. I loved doing the projects, especially painting/staining, and now the house looks a lot better. Next time I go, we want to do their bedroom and maybe the kitchen. Yay!

I was so happy to see Rob again. We were apart for 19 days (longest ever) and I was gone from our place for a month! I was so happy to walk out of the airport and see Rob smiling and holding a beautiful bouquet. We couldn't stop staring at each other. I owe Rob a big thanks for letting me go spend that much time with my family. Also, for moving us to our new, ground-floor apt.