It's a Christmas miracle

And no I am not talking about the fact we somehow made it through the holidays so far in one piece. You know when I started this blog thing I thought I would have a hard time after a while coming up with things to blog about. That is definately not the case. Christmas was awesome but before I get into that I wanted to share this real quick. Go to this link and under the course titled "Introduction to Bank Teller Training" notice the last name of the instructor? Yep, that's right, just call me Professor Gundersen. It's spelled wrong I know but that's just the story of my life as far as the name goes. So as long as people sign up I am going to be a part time college teacher. Cool huh?

So now on to my Christmas miracle. As previous postings have mentioned I have been working on this doll house fixing it up for Savannah for Christmas. It was definately used with plenty of wear and tear. I was pretty intimidated to take on the project but I thought it would be so neat for Savannah to have something like this. My intimidation came from several areas, first I have very limited tools and second my skill and knowledge of this sort of stuff is pretty slim. I know people that could build a house from the ground up but unfortunately those are not talents I have worked on or tried to develope. But I took on the project and figured I could figure it out. In the begining it was pretty simple, it needed to be refinished, so I bought a sander and went to town.

That part wasn't so hard just dusty and time consuming. I should probably point out that the original maker of this doll house was very skilled and it was very finely crafted. That didn't help the intimidation any. The fear of messing up something so finely built was very prevalent. So as I would work on the doll house little ideas of things I should do next would start to come to mind. Now keep in mind that I have no prior experience to fall back on for these ideas to be coming from. But I would just get an idea and see in my mind how it would work. We wanted to do siding, mostly because the sides had permanent marker on them that would have taken 12 coats of paint to cover up. A friend suggested 5 gallon paint stiring sticks that you can get for free from places like Lowes or Home Depot. So picture this in your mind, I am aproaching the counter of the painting department at your friendly neighborhood Lowes. There was a highschool age looking young man behind the counter. "How can I help you?" "Hi, do you have those five gallon stirring sticks?' "Sure, how many do you need?" he asks as he pulls about 4 out from under the counter. "50" I reply. He didn't hide his look of shock very well. "Well, ummmm, I can maybe give you this many" He pulls out about 10 more. "You can try our other store down by Costco" I am persistant" I can pay for them" He kinda stammers again and shakes his head as I realize he wouldn't even know how much to charge or how to ring them up, they are after all free. "Would it work if we talked to your manager and worked something out so I can pay for them?" A very long pause as I could literally watch the wheels in the kids head working overtime. "How many did you want again?" "50" I reply. The kid kinda looked around quickly as if he is about to do something he shouldn't then he starts to quickly count them out onto the counter. "Thank you" I tell him and he asks "So you got a big painting project or something" "Actually. its going to be siding for a doll house." I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure the look on his face was something along the lines of I can't beleive I just gave him all of those sticks for that. He's not even going to buy paint. I quickly left not giving him time to change his mind and take them back. I felt kinda bad after he looked so upset but I did offer to pay for them after all.

So everybody out there make sure you shop Lowes! They are great, so much better then that Home Depot place. (there maybe the recommendation on the world wide web will pay for the sticks) :) So I asked a friend to borrow his table saw and he helped me cut the sticks down. The sticks were long enought that cutting off the handle plus about an inch and they were just the right length for the siding. It turns out my staple gun that I bought for hanging up Christmas lights is also a nail gun. I bought the little nails and added some wood glue and away we went. At this point I had finished staining and painting the inside and out so it was time to start on the roof. Somehwere I had gotten the idea that I needed to do trim. So I found something at Lowes that would work. At this point though I realized I would have to cut an angle for the peak. At this point I hit panic almost. All I have is a hand saw, I had no way to measure an angle let alone really cut it right. I had never done anything like this before and didn't know what I was going to do. I was thinking about it for a couple of days and I had been working on something else on the doll house. I was thinking about it before falling asleep one night and as I was waking up that morning I was having a dream about the peak and I could still see in my mind how exactly I needed to lay the trim on the peak, how I could trace the line and how I needed to cut it to make sure the angle was right. The image stayed in my mind all day and that night within 45 minutes of starting I had my peak done filled with a stainable wood putty (purchased at Lowes of course, notice a trend here) because of a crack while I was cutting it and stained.
I call this one my major miracle #1. Miracle #2 came Christmas Eve. All I had left was the shingles, We had measured the square inches and ordered off of an online doll acesories website and we had ordered an extra 250 shingles for good measure. Well I was half way through the second side of the house when I realized I was going to be short. Instead of 7/8 between each row of shingles I was supposed to do 1 inch. Well when you have over 60 rows that 1/8 adds up. I looked at what I had left and measured and realized I was going to be about 3 rows short or around 100 shingles needed. I was soooooo bummed. I told Kira and we both couldn't believe we were this close. I could be wrong but I was pretty sure there was not a store open at 1 am Christmas morning selling doll house shingles. I was really upset but I figured I would just do as much as possible and hope she wouldn't notice until we could get more shingles to finish it up. So I kept glueing and gluing when I realized I was getting pretty close and I wasn't running out of shingles. I actually sat down and counted out enough shingles for all the rows I had left and then I counted out enough shingles to finish a trim along the peak that I had pictured in my mind but since given up on given the shingle shortage. In the end I had a total of three shingles left over. I have no idea how it happened. It literally should not have happened. I know some people out there will probably say you just measured wrong or counted wrong. Maybe your right, but if you had been there and seen that tiny pile of shingles and looked at what you had left to cover you would be as amazed as I was. I showed Kira and she couldn't beleive it either.
So she loves it, it was absolutely perfect. I am so excited that it turned out so well, more then a little shocked but very happy to have it done.
So that is the doll house and this is now a very long posting. I guess I had to make for not posting for over a week huh? There is so much more to cover for Christmas but that will have to be another posting. Merry Christmas!

It's Almost Christmas

It has been such a fun hectic week. We have been trying to fit in as many fun Christmas activities as we can. On Monday we went ans saw the Christmas lights at the District. The District is a little shopping center with a bunch of really nice stores like Pottery Barn and Williams Sanoma. They deck it all out in lights and the kids love it.This picture is from a place we like to go to every year as well. Ethel M Chocolates has a factory here in town. The company was bought out by Mars a couple of years ago so attached to the factory is an M & M store and they have a desert garden that they light up for Christmas. It is not quite Temple Square but it is still nice.

My work had

Santa come

so Kira brought

the kids.

And the perfect end to every day since the first of the month has been the Christmas Book countdown. This is just one of the three countdowns we have, there is a little chimney that everyday you pull a brick out and Santa slowly falls down to the bottom. We also have these little envelopes that Kira sewed together that everyday one is opened and there are chocolates for the kids. But my favorite is the Christmas books. At the beginning of the year Kira spent a couple of months going around to Deseret Industries and the Goodwill Store and purchased all the Christmas books she could find until she finally had 24. Then she individually wrapped each one. Now the kids get to pick a book each night, unwrap it and have a Christmas story read to them. I love it.

Family Fun

Our Christmas card is done and is now in the mail. We used the pictures from our Polar Express trip. Kira loves the digital scrapbooking and she does a great job. It is actually not to hard to do. The last couple years we have both made cards and had little contests, she would post them both on a digiscrap website without saying which one belonged to who and then would ask people to vote for their favorite. I was winning one year until she replied to a comment and gave away which one was hers and suddenly every vote after that was for hers. I think it was because of the left wing anti male digiscrappers group. They are notorious for stuff like that. Anyway it is done for this year and looks great.

We drove around looking at Christmas lights tonight for a family activity. It is so much fun seeing all the lit up houses. There is one house that is our favorite, they have a light show timed to music and when you drive up they have a sign telling you to tune into an FM radio station and you can listen and watch at the same time. The kids love it and in between the songs there are recordings of the home owners and their kids tellign everyone Merry Christmas. Tonight they also mentioned a website so we logged in after we got home and they created a webiste about their lights. It is pretty cool, you can watch videos of the different songs and how their house looks and what is even cooler is their only about 1/2 mile from our house so it doesn't take long to go there.

Christmas Party

My company had their annual Christmas party this evening. We splurged on a baby sitter for Hunter and Savannah and took the baby with us. The Christmas party is always a great time it is held at the clubhouse of a really nice local golf course. The dinner is catered and there is a fundraiser raffle. All the proceeds go to support the Children's Miracle Network so it is for a good cause. I can't help but feel bad though when we don't win anything. We won a gift card in 2004 but that has been the last time we have drawn anything. I always hope to get the trip to Disney Land but we did not luck out this time.
I made good progress on the doll house today as well. Both floors are now stained and I put a new support board across the back in the bottom. When I pulled the back off the support board came off as well. Did I mention that I feel all crafty being able to do this, I just hope I can get it all done in time.
You are probably wondering what that other picture of the wall/medicine cabinet is doing there. I am having so much fun with the doll house I already have my next big project all lined up. We were at Lowe's last night (picking stuff up for the doll house ironically) and we came across some discount items in the middle of the floor back by the cabinets. There were these bathroom cabinets out there and Kira walked right up to them. They were slightly damaged, one had some water damage on the inside but not see able from the outside and another has some damage from a forklift in the back but all it needs is some support boards replaced and none of it was visible from the front. Total it was almost 700.00 worth of cabinets marked at 120.00. Kira really wanted to get them but I wasn't really into the idea at first until the department manager heard us debating the purchase and came over and took another 40.00 off the total. Kira ran home and measured the base cabinets in the bathroom and I will end up needing to fill about 1 1/2 inches on each side and they will fit perfectly. We have double sinks in there. So before I am even close to done with the doll house I am set up with project work for at least another 6 months. This one will really test my abilities since it will require taking all the base cabinets out of the bathroom, replacing the sinks and the faucets, we are thinking we should tile the counter since we are going to be replacing it anyway and we can get tile for cheap.

Count your blessings

I found out recently that someone we know was laid off from his job. I first met him about 4 years ago, we were going to University of Pheonix together for a while. They have a little girl the same age as Hunter and a little boy about 6 months younger then Savannah and they are pregnant with their third baby. It really brings a reality shock and makes me think about how blessed we are. I am so grateful for a job that mostly pays the bills and helps me to provide for my family. We have a home when so many people have been priced out of even the chance of buying a house. We're definately not rich by society's standards, not by a long shot but I think I am literally the luckiest man to be blessed with such a beautiful family. Sometimes I feel that if the blessings I receive came from some type of Heavenly Bank account I would be extremely overdrawn. I'm so grateful to Heavenly Father who blesses me so much more then I deserve.




The doll house is coming along good now. There was a hole in the back of the house so I pulled off the back of the doll house. Then I had to sand down the jagged edges that were left. It made it easier to finish sanding down the second floor so it is ready to stain now. Once it is stained I'll put a new back on and then it will be ready for the shingles and the siding. So much to do and so little time. Only 19 days until Christmas! Hunter has been helping me. I was thinking about an earlier post where I mentioned remembering helping put together my little sisters doll house. Besides he had already seen the house shape in the garage hiding underneath a bedsheet. So I was afraid that if we said it was from Santa he would realize that the doll house really came from the garage and then there goes the whole believing in Santa. So instead he can help me with it and be a part of watching how excited Savannah will be Christmas morning. Santa can bring something else for her. :)

What a trip!!!!

We just got back this afternoon from one of the funnest little family trips we have done to date. There is a railroad in Arizona called the Grand Canyon Railway and in the winter they have the Polar Express. I took yesterday and today off of work for the trip. We left yesterday early afternoon, it was about a four hour drive and we got to Williams, AZ just in time to check into the hotel and go to the train station. They do have a hotel at the railroad station but the packages to be able to stay the night there started at over 300.00. We weren't going to do that when there was a Motel 6 100 feet away for 38.00 a night. I think the pictures say it all. The kids had a magical time. We have been watchign the movie nonstop the last couple of weeks to help them understand exactly what we were doing. We got to the trainstation and we first went and met Mrs. Clause and wrote a letter to Santa. Then we got to see the train arrive and show our tickets to board. The rail car was built in the 1920's and was a lot of fun. The seats turned to face each other so the five of us got to sit together. They gave us hot chocolate and cookies while they read the story of the Polar Express and sang Christmas Carols. In about 45 minutes we arrived at the North Pole to see Santa waving to the train. The train stopped for a minute and then next thing we knew Santa was walking into our railway car! He came through and said hi to each child and gave them a bell. The kids were on cloud nine. I have to admit that my kids bring a whole new level of excitement to Christmas that I have never felt before. Sure it was exciting and all when I was a kid growing up but there is nothing that compares to how exciting it is to watch your children have so much fun. It was great. We stayed in the hotel that night and then slowly made our way back home stopping at whatever we felt like on the way. There was a deer farm with a petting zoo. You got to go out into this big pen that had walkways through it and the deer would come right up and eat out of your hands. No fence in between just you and the kids right in the middle of the deer. The kids had a blast, I was making sure they weren't touching anything until they had a chance to wash the deer slobber off of their hands. But deer slobber aside it was a great time. We stopped in the little towns along Route 66 and ate at the little town cafes for our meals. Overall it was a great time, the kids had so much fun and it was so nice to break away and leave reality behind for a couple of days. Kira made a slide show of our trip, enjoy!

Cedar Shingles

This is my project that I will be working on for the next few weeks trying to get it ready for Christmas. This is going to be Savannah's Doll House. We have some really good friends who are hooking us up all the time with great stuff. In fact they are the ones who gave us the Christmas lights I mentioned in a previous post. They gave us this dollhouse that had been made for their daughters. Now their kids are older and they've passed it on to us. I am really excited. I have felt like a craftsman sanding it down and getting it ready to stain and paint and fix up different things. There is something therapeutic about working with wood I've decided. The smell of freshly sanded wood has triggered feelings that are a little unfamiliar to me. I have had very strong urges recently to go and buy power tools. Lots of them, I walk through Lowes and I see saws. There are so many different types of saws and I have to ask why? I have no clue what they all really do besides cut wood. But for some reason I must have them, even though I would have no clue really what to do with most of them. Up until now we have not had the space but now I have a garage and this work bench with shelves and hooks and all sorts of space that I know must have held tools prior to us living here. I remember when I was little and watching my dad glue little wood shingles on a dollhouse for my sister. Well we ordered some cedar shingles from a website that specializes in doll house accessories. www.earthandtree.com One of the things that we have learned rather quickly is that doll house stuff is a very specialized market and can be very expensive. It is amazing the different things you can buy like furniture, sinks and fireplaces. Every little detail for a house you can think of and someone makes it on a miniature scale. We are not going to venture into that realm. At least not now anyway, I will see if I can come up with some alternatives. The little blocks of wood you can see on the bottom floor of the dollhouse is some remnants of doll furniture that was made using mostly cut up 2X4's. So I will see what I can put together but I will definitely keep you all updated as it comes along.

Dear Santa

It is always hard going back to work after a four day weekend, I think the thing I was most excited about was my little Charlie Brown tree. It was $1 at Wal-Mart. I know you can probably picture in your mind what a $1 tree looks like and your probably right. It stands about 18 inches tall. It has maybe 24 tips, but once you put a strand of 20 lights in it and add some little mini red ornaments and some white snowflake garland it looks rather festive. I have gotten a lot of compliments so far accompanied with some good natured chuckles. The kids are getting very excited. Hunter asked me the other day why we were putting up all the lights. I told him it was because it is Christmas time. He seemed very excited about my response. The next morning after I had left to put up Christmas lights at Grandma and Grandpa Gollmers Kira told me that she noticed Hunter seemed to be in a little bit of a funk, kinda moping around and he seemed like something was bothering him. So Kira asked him what was wrong and he said "Why didn't Santa come mommy?" The poor boy had thought me saying it was Christmas time meant Santa was coming tomorrow and he had woken up looking for his presents. Kira said it was probably a good hour before she asked him what was wrong so he had spent all that time thinking he hadn't gotten anything for Christmas. I think I have the most adorable kids in the world. We have since reassured him that we will let him know when Santa is coming. Yesterday he told Savannah not to worry because he would make sure and wake her up if he wakes up and finds the presents.

To C9 or not C9?

So we drove around tonight looking at Christmas lights. There are quite few up and it was a fun outing. I think our house looks awesome this year. Last year all we had was some clear C9's. The lights were given to us from some friends who do major bargain shopping and they cleared out Lowes of thousands of dollars worth of Christmas decorations for .05 on the dollar. The lights however were kinda intense. C9's can be bright and these strands had 25 lights on 16 feet of wire. So needless to say last year I had a few fears going through my mind. Besides my power bill I was afraid an airplane would mistake us for the airport and try to land. Can you imagine the news headline, "Christmas lights reek havoc on air traffic" "Breaking news as we go live to the scene." "Sue, what is happening there in that small neighborhood?" "Well Stan, as you can see (camera pans around to show several airplanes lined up in the street) this house right here was so bright the pilots thought the runway had been moved and proceeded to land" "FAA officials have not commented yet but we were able to speak to the owner briefly several moments ago" (clip from earlier) "Sir, what were you thinking?" Me: All I wanted was to put up Christmas lights! (tears roll down my face)

Since we barely avoided catastrophe last year we figured we shouldn't tempt fate a second time. The only question was what did we want to do? I thought that it would look really sharp if we replaced the clear C9 bulbs with red and green. I did this with Kira's grandparents house and it looks great. The only downside to that was we would have to replace 150 bulbs. Let's see, divide that by four bulbs in a pack and $ .96 a pack comes out to be $36 in just bulbs. No fun. Then Kira had a brilliant idea. She suggested we keep the clear and add red. I would like to say I'm joking but heavenly music literally started playing the moment she said it. Pure inspiration.

So I single handedly cleaned Lowes out of every single red C9 bulb they had. Sorry to everyone out there who showed up after I did. I added a few windows and Kira is the sole inspiration for how great our front door looks. The large ornaments were .97 at Wal-Mart. The pictures do not do it justice but I think you can get the idea.

So our house is the sharpest looking one on our street so far. What we lack in quantity of lights we make up for in quality! :)

On a family note the kids have been under the weather again. This time it is a cough that comes with a fever. We have just been taking it easy the last couple of days. We have watched The Polar Express probably ten times. The kids don't know it yet but we have tickets to go this year. I am so excited, we wanted to go last year but we didn't call in time. Kira called about a month ago and they still had a couple of spots. http://www.thetrain.com/

Kira has crocheted us some way cool hats to help with the cold weather in Arizona. Don't they look adorable?