sewing room

The third car garage of our house had been converted into a work room of sorts by the previous owners.  We thought it was a meth lab.  It had special ventilation, all sorts of pipes and computer-monitored mixing systems, and water filter systems, plus it smelled really weird.  I'm sure it was all the Breaking Bad watching we had been doing, but we worried it was a meth lab.  Turns out it was a dark room.  The previous owner was a photographer.  Oh.

Anyway, the "meth lab" became our dumping room.  It held all the boxes and things we didn't want to deal with when we moved in.  It was nasty.  

Fast forward to school being over, me being 8.5 months pregnant, and I wanted to start sewing.  I love to sew!  My poor sewing machine had been packed away forever, and I was ready to get it out.  Babies were coming, and I needed to get creating!  The only problem was, was I needed a space to do it.  Enter nasty meth lab.  

I wish I got a true before with all the boxes and junk still in this little room. 

 But let me tell you, this room was DIRTY!  The matte black walls were just covered in dust of some sort.  

 So these pictures are after I've already cleared out the room and started painting those lower cabinets.  I promise, it already looks 58x better.  

And after:

 I still need to get a real table to sew on since this card table shakes every time I start up my machine, but hey, it's a surface!  

Bernina love!

 And I want to paint the floor...

 and still need to take care of the lower wall area, but I can sew!!

I made these shoes and onesies for Tara's baby.

 And these gender neutralish wannabe Vans for our baby.  

I love my meth lab-turned sewing room!

men love power tools

This is a sad story.

We have a huge tree in the front yard, and I LOVE it!

It is one of the reasons I really loved this house when we were looking for houses.

But the HOA apparently doesn't love it.

Because it hangs over the road.

Give me a break!

So we got some tree trimming quotes.

$500.

Seriously!?  To trim a tree?!!?

So Ryan set out to do it himself.  He shimmied up the tree, tied him and the chainsaw to a branch, and tried to cut off some branches.  

But it was hot, and he was really high, and next thing I know, he almost passes out.

willow before

 So instead of passing out and falling out of a tree, Ryan got a bucket truck.

Exhibit A: Ryan in bucket truck

 This handy bucket truck Ryan could control from the bucket and raise himself to wherever he needed to be to cut the poor tree limbs.  

Exhibit B: Ryan about to cut tree limb

 Ryan was out there for 5 hours cutting this thing!

Because once he got the limbs down, he needed to cut and pile those so the city pick-up would come and get the branches.

 Oh, and I was in the house, doing my Saturday chores, and Ryan kept having me come outside to see what I thought about what branch to cut, bring him water, etc.  The funny thing is, is I was wearing this:

for your viewing pleasure

 You see, I have some pretty funny girlfriends who gave me a birthing baby gift.  It included  things like stool softeners, hemorrhoid cream, nipple cream, etc.; and this lovely little number.  They may have thought this gorgeous pink cherry nightgown was a joke, but once I tried it on, it was no joke!  I was wearing it all day on the tree trimming day.  So each time I went outside to observe/help Ryan, at least one neighbor would catch  me in this.  

Fortunately my neighbors are awesome, and they'd say it was cute (lie), or say "you're 9 months pregnant, wear whatever you want!" (truth).  

I love this nightgown.

And that's the story about how Ryan appeased the HOA, and saved us $500, and I gave my neighbors something to laugh about.  

Willow after.

Ryan rules.

I'm back!

So I took a six month hiatus.  NBD.  Life has been cra-zy!  But some exciting things have happened.  Maybe some of these will get their own posts, but let's be honest.  Probably not.  So some fun things that have happened since I last posted:  

I did finish Ironman!  One of the most incredible days of my life, and if you like to read, you can read more about it here.  

 Ryan started a new job.  He is now a prosecutor for Maricopa County.  When he gets home from work, Drake likes to ask him "how many bad guys did you get today?"  It's pretty cute.

We found out a new McPhie is joining our family!  This has been a great surprise, and we couldn't be happier.  Baby McPhie is coming some time around October 4, and Gwen and Drake are so excited to have a baby brother or sister!

We bought a house!  We had been renting ever since Ryan started law school, and most recently we spent a few months living with my parents while we were house hunting.  While we loved being there, Ryan was anxious for a place of our own, so we sadly left Mesa, and moved to Gilbert.  We love the area, and love the house, and someday will furnish it.  ;)

Gwen and Drake have been killing it in school!

They're sad to be leaving the school they've been attending the past few years in Mesa, but are excited to maybe get to ride bikes to school next school year.

And I GRADUATED!!!!!

   This I can't take all the credit for, because I would not have made it without the support of my family and friends.  This last year has been especially hard since so much time was spent doing my schooling, I felt it was keeping me from being the kind of mother I wanted to be for my kids.  Often they'd ask me why I have to go to school, and if I could just quit.  Ugh!!!  I wish I could have.  I'd tell them McPhies don't quit, and it'd be over soon.  Mostly I was convincing myself.  But it turned out to be true.  It's over!!  Now on to bar prep.  :p

Ryan threw me a lovely graduation party.

 The kids helped decorate.

Love these signs Drake made!

And now, perhaps life will slow down a little.

Besides preparing for the bar, I'll be running the babes to swim, and eating watermelon all summer, so hopefully I might be able to resume blogging as well.  

nature appreciation

I love it when I plug in my camera and I find a bunch of pictures taken by the kids. Most of them this time were of all the plants in our yard. All the bushes, trees, my dying flowers, etc. But this one was my favorite!

Do you see a cute little Drakey head poking up in there?

The other day while we were out playing in the yard, we saw a good ant hill buried in the grass. I had heard that a good way to kill ants is to pour boiling water on them. So we boiled up a big pot of water and took it outside to do away with the ant colony. Mass murder style. We poured out the water and watched the hill disappear. Later that evening though, we saw this...

do you see those little dark spots in the grass? (And the dead patch of grass from the boiling water?)

Those dark areas are piles of DEAD ANTS!! The ones that lived carry the dead ones out of the hole and pile them up! Those little hard workers were moving the dead bodies out of their home all day. (and never mind that I'm in my pajamas at 6:00)

See, look at these piles, all little dead ant bodies!

Nature is so cool!

Sorry to destroy you little guys, but we don't want you biting us while we play in the grass.

RIP.

home improvementifications

We have a grapefruit tree.

A big, ugly, overgrown, half dead grapefruit tree.

Behold-

Ryan called up Kolby and asked him if he could borrow his chain saw.

Behold-

There was a little boy who was amazed by his dad and the chainsaw.

He wanted to play too.

Behold-

They worked hard, those two.

Behold-

Behold the before-

And behold the after-

Wow!

And still on the to do list,

building a block wall

installing a sprinkler system

But those things will have to wait since this weekend this happened:

I came home from school Friday afternoon, and our house was so hot!

This is what the thermostat read:

thankfully Saturday the blessed AC people came out to replace the old broken heap of junk on the roof.

A crane had to come out to lift the old one off and the new one up.

We are now basking in the coolness of our new AC.

And trying hard not to think of the price paid for that cool air.

b & a

Over the summer, I thought I should finally get around to painting my cabinets before school started. I got all the top ones painted, and then school started, and my home improvement life came to an end. Then Christmas vacation came along. I had five weeks, surely I could finish the cabinets. But alas, no. So this week has been spring break, and I got wise and recruited the help of this hot handy man who actually happens to live with me. (I'm talking about Ryan people!!) He helped me a lot, and finally, after seven months, our kitchen cabinets are finished!!

Before:

After:

I thought my fridge was a mess then...

But with Drake in school now, there's not even enough room on the fridge!

The cabinets on the island were particularly nasty:

And the cabinets under the sink were so damaged!!

I just love my "new" kitchen!! Thanks for your help Ryan!

Now we just need new counters, sink, and to get rid of the dumb dropped ceiling/fluorescent lights.

oww

Last weekend, we were moving some stuff from the old house to the new one, and I was carrying a load, couldn't really see around it until it was too late. I saw Drake sitting on the floor in the garage, doing a wind up with Ryan's long board, and sent the long board sailing into my feet. Well I was carrying year supply food. So oatmeal and beans went everywhere! And I was left with a bruised foot. It was so tender where my toes meet my foot. And I saw the look in Drake's eyes while he was putting his evil plan together. I know it was no accident. I now lock the door to my room when I go to bed so I don't wake up with all my hair cut off or my pajamas lit on fire.
Then yesterday I was unpacking- STILL, and I picked up a giant glass jar by the lid. (dumb I know) Well the lid popped off the jar, and it fell right on my same foot. So that bump pictured above doesn't mean that I'm preggo with a swollen foot. Instead I just have a mutilated foot.

earning my keep

That's what my dad used to tell us when we were growing up. He'd tell us to clean because we had to earn our keep.

So yesterday I got called in to work at the temple. The shift is 9:30PM to 1:30AM. I was already so tired I could have gone to bed at 8! So Ryan told me I should just stay the night at my parent's house which is like 4 minutes from the temple instead of driving the 25 minutes home to our house. Since I almost fell asleep on the way home the last time I worked I figured that'd be a good idea. So that meant that Ryan would have to get the kids up, dressed, fed, and make their lunches. And he did!! He got them to my mom's by 8:05 so I could have time to fix Gwen's hair and get them to school. So when we got home this afternoon, I walked into a disaster area! Just look. at the condition of the house.

Now I'm not blaming this on Ryan. A lot of this was my mess, but all the food from preparing lunches for him and the kids was still left out, there were clothes and toys everywhere. I'm serious. These pictures don't even do justice because this mess was so expansive that the camera couldn't capture it. So I worked my hiny off, and cleaned for 4 constant hours...

Here's the after.

Oh, it feels so much better.