The Great Bathroom Remodel

This was a project that while living in my parents basement we had wanted to do the entire time we were there. We finally got started right about the time I graduated. Then it wasn't too much longer before I got the job offer that moved us here to Tucson, so many a late night was spent trying to get as much done before we moved. My dad ended up having to finish the tile in the closet, the mirror, toilet, some of the vanity and all the towel racks and shower curtain. In the end it turned out really nice and we enjoy using it when we come up to visit. Enjoy the slideshow (a little long but shows most of the progress really well)

New car

We got a new car, well not new but new to us. It's a 2005 Ford Expedition. We sold our Kia Sorento a few weeks ago because there was not enough room for a third car seat in the back seat. We won't be out growing this anytime soon.

Maeley had a blast car shopping and is happy with this one.

Thank you Derek! I love my new car, not as much as I love you though!

My baking buddy

Maeley has been my baking buddy since she could sit up. I would sit her on the counter next to the mixer and she would watch me add each ingredient. She still loves it and has become such a big helper. This time after adding the flour she thought it was time for the dough to be mixed. Flour went everywhere because when she turned it on she put it on a high speed.

The next couple pictures are of Maeley washing her play dishes. She had so much fun.

Maeley & Chase

Chase: He may be too young to talk but he certainly tries to get his point across. He has his own language which includes grunts, groans and pointing. He actually does a pretty good job at letting us know what he wants. Last night while I was making dinner he stood pointing up at the stove. Apparently he likes the smell of sausage and wanted some right then. A couple weeks ago while I was at Target I found a toy drill. When I showed it to him he got so excited. It's his favorite toy. We decided it was time to convert his crib to a toddler bed. Chase joined his dad and had a great time. Everyone tells me that boys are for the moms and girls are for the dads. With our kids it's the exact opposite. Chase loves being with Derek and Maeley is attached to me.

Like father like son

His favorite toy

Maeley: Hooray she is finally potty trained. It's so nice having only one child's diapers to change. She's a silly girl. Almost everything she eats needs to go into the freezer to cool down. She hates hot food. She is now saying prayers and always includes her cousins in them. Her cousins are her friends as she tells me on a daily basis. Her birthday just isn't coming soon enough for her...or us for that matter. She has begun telling us what she wants for her birthday. One of which is a pink backpack. I think that stared from playing at her Trejo cousins house in St. David a few weeks ago. After spending a quick weekend in Gilbert, Maeley has had a hard time being at her new home and missing family. She is doing better now, but that's mainly because she gets to see cousins this weekend. She's ready for schoolTalking to Grandma Jones

DIY - Restore Those Foggy Headlights

So for those who really know me you know that I enjoy learning how to do new things, especially if it is something hands on. I have decided that when I can I will be trying to take pictures and writing a little "how to", just in case someone should happen upon this that could use the info for themselves. So that being said, I decided to attack the foggy headlights on the Tiburon that I drive. The tools I used were a bucket for water, rags to soak and rags to dry, 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper, 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper, orbital buffer (like for buffing cars), and rubbing compound (same stuff used for buffing cars, but it is used for filling in the small scratches that will be left from sanding. Trust me, it will look so much better).















To get you motivated, this is what we are trying to make them look like in the end.















And this poor speciman is before all the conditioning (I did the passenger side headlight before taking any pictures to make sure it would turn out)















Though it is hard to see here, this is a little side-by-side comparison of the before (right) and after (left).















This picture is after some sanding with 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper. For this job, I found it nice to have a rag that I would soak in water and squeeze out the water just above the headlight while sanding. This helps to continually move away the deposits left from sanding.
















Here is a little side-by-side after the 600 grit paper. You can see how much more hazy the headlight becomes. You may also worry that you have destroyed it even more at this point, but don't worry, you are doing fine.















This shows the light from the headlights. There is quite a difference as can be plainly seen.















Just a shot with the lights on (no flash on the camera)















This time I have the flash on so you can see the lights better. Clear versus fuzzy. ( I feel like I should be doing this in the voice of Ben Stein in one of the Clear Eyes eye drop commercials. )















At this point I have now sanded again, this time with 2000 grit. Then once I cleaned off the surface from that, I used an orbital buffer with rubbing compound and buffed the lights. Here you can see the light spots are the same.















With the lights on, you can see that our headlights are looking good.
















With the flash on the camera, you can see how much better and clear the lenses are. Hopefully you have enjoyed my little DIY here. The biggest key when sanding is making sure you really focus on the areas that form cloudy looking spots. Taking the time to wipe clean and dry the lense on occasion to check the status while sanding is important. Now you can attack your own yellow, foggy headlights and see better at night. Plus your headlights will be super smooth. (Just don't let anyone catch you rubbing your headlights, that may look a little weird. He he he)

New Employee Post

At my work, they post a weekly online news for employees on our intranet. Here is the post of me (they show all the new employees). I think it is cool, a way to get to know new people. (You may want to click on it and make it larger to read)

Chase's 1st Birthday

Chase turned one last Thursday, which is really hard to believe. And of course the extended family was able to find ways to spoil the kiddo. Somehow, every toy and gift he got had something to do with transportation (trains, cars, trucks... good stuff). Sort of put the Winnie the Pooh cake out of place (although Melanie did a super good job on it).

Can you tell he loved the cake?

Yeah!!!! PICTURES!!!

Time to break open the camera and see what pictures fall out. Here we gooooooooo..............!

Dad has a fuzzy head!! TOUCH IT!!!!

Don't they just look like the bestest little buddies?

Us? Buddies? Naaaww.

We love cookies!! Especially on our face!

Let's Ride!!

Us at the new house

The new house in Tucson

Hey you! What you looking at?

Is she really only 2 1/2?

I swear, next thing you know she'll be asking to drive the car....

wait.... she already does.

The New Adventure Begins...

Ok, so it has been over a week since the move down to Tucson. Bit of a delay in responding to the blog as we have yet to get internet at home (but that should be coming Wednesday). There are no pictures for now as I am on my work computer. But let me sum up what has happened since our move. First off, the movers came Friday and packed up everything. That night Melanie and I took Maeley to go see Wall-E. She was so excited to go that everytime Melanie called me during the day, Maeley had to tell me about how we were going to go see Wall-E. She did really well at the movie too. She talked a lot during the previews, but was quiet the whole movie (plus maybe a little tired). Then the next day Melanie and I got up at 3:30am to drive down to Tucson to meet our property manager before the movers showed to get the keys and finalize everything. The movers were supposed to get there at 7:30 (which we were there about 7). Well, about 8:40 they showed up. But they got everything unloaded by 10:30 and we were able to unbox some boxes before they left so we could have them haul off trash. Needless to say there is still plently of boxes folded up in our garage. We spent the rest of the day unpacking and getting the kids' rooms done before my parents drove down with them in the afternoon. They showed up around 5ish. Maeley was super excited (partly due to the new Tinkerbell poster adorning the wall above her bed). We thought she would have a hard time when my parents left, but she waved good-bye and that was that. We were pretty tired that Sunday we got some rest in plus dropped by Melanie's aunt that lives around here. Monday was spent doing more unpacking and grocery shopping. Tuesday came and I started work. The first week (Tues - Thurs) was probably typical of most new jobs, signing forms and getting introduced to everyone and everything. But I am very excited. It was nice to have another 3-day weekend to get more things unpacked and do more decorating things and also just relax. We also made it to our new ward yesterday. It is a smaller ward, but very friendly and we look forward to getting involved in whatever callings we get (except nursery). On another note, Maeley decided after moving here that she wanted to use the potty, so she has been doing really well and even goes to public restrooms (although I think she feels obligated to go to the bathroom at every store we go to). Anyway, Thursday is Chase's 1st birthday and we should have some pictures up by then or Friday of the new house and other things. Until then...

Things Are A-Changin'

So for those of you that have been living in a cave, there have been some big changes occuring for the Jones Crew. Obviously as previously posted we are expecting our third child in Oct/Nov. A week ago I accepted a job offer in Tucson, AZ. I will be working for Kitchell Contractors in their health care division. The project is a 6-story addition to the University Medical Campus just north of the University of Arizona. So that is very exciting for us. This means we will be finally moving out of my parents basement after almost 10 months. Did I mention I start July 1st? So as of this posting we have one week to get down there. Saturday we went down to look at rental homes. After many hours driving around town (not to mention the drive there and back) we applied for a nice 3-bedroom home on the east side of town (the nicer side of town from what we could tell from driving around). We found out this morning that we got approved, so we are very excited (our new address will be 9525 E. Rashad Way, Tucson, AZ 85748. It doesn't show up on google maps, but it is the little neighborhood on the SE corner of Broadway and Harrison). And in the midst of all this hustle and bustle of trying to get moved, I am trying to finish up a bathroom remodel in my parents basement (which we might get to enjoy for a day or two before moving). Late nights of packing and working on the remodel have left Melanie and I completely exhausted and ready to be in our new place, unpacked and relaxing. One day.

4 wonderful years

Yesterday Derek & I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. In some ways the time seems to have flow by and in others it feels like we've always been married. We have been "together" now for nearly 7 years and still madly in love with each other.

Over the past 4 years we have:
-had 2 kids, and now expecting our third
-lived in 3 places (townhouse, Tremaine house, Derek's parents basement)
-owned 5 vehicles (Camry, Avalon, CJ5, Cherokee, Silverado, Sorento)
-I have worked 2 places (Mikasa & Legacy)
-Derek has worked 4 places (Legacy, worked for Jeff, Bentley Restorations, LGE Design Build)
-had 2 dogs (Charlie and Dixie)
- put Derek through college (he recently graduated, hooray!)

Balloons

Maeley loves getting a balloon each time we go to Red Robin's. This time Chase had to have one too. He thinks he's much older than 11 months.

It was so fun watching him walk around the house holding onto his balloon.

Isn't she so cute?

Maeley & Chase spent nearly an hour walking around with their balloons. Maeley switched her pink balloon for Chase's blue one. He didn't mind, he had a great time. They love playing together.

Maeley was right

We are having a girl! Maeley kept saying she was having a sister. The due date is November 2nd. I will be having another c-section which will most likely be scheduled for the end of October. We are very excited!

I've been tagged

Well actually I've been tagged twice with two different tags, but I'll just do one.

Three Joys:
1. The obvious, my family. I love my husband and two kids, they bring more joy to my life than anything else.
2. Chocolate- well duh!
3. Shopping- I love to shop. I usually shop first for the kids and Derek before I shop for myself.

Three Fears:
1- Anything bad happening to my husband or kids, I'm just not sure if I could handle it.
2- Creepy crawlies- Scorpions, spiders, snakes they all freak me out. Currently I am most hateful towards scorpions as I was stung twice while I was sleeping in my bed a few months back!
3- Car accidents- most of you know I was in a horrible car accident when I was 17. I still won't drive long distance and prefer not to drive in general if I don't have to. It's a good thing Derek likes driving.

Three goals:
1. To become a better mother- There is always room for improvement and I have a long way to go.
2. To buy a home- Derek is finally out of school so hopefully soon.
3. Cake decorating- I've taken classes a couple years back and really enjoyed it. I would love to learn more about fondant. It's fun to work with and the results are amazing!

Three current obsessions:
1- Coach- I love Coach handbags. Well designer handbags in general but I have leaned towards Coach lately.
2- Craigslist- I love looking for a good deal.
3- House searches- Derek and I really enjoy looking at houses online. We are anxious for a place to call home.

Three random facts:
1. I have a scar on my right knee that I got while I was trick-or-treating when I was about 8 or 9 (I think). I tripped over a curb (haha I know). Blood dripping down my leg didn't stop me from going home either. I finished trick-or-treating and cleaned it up when I got home.
2. I ditched preschool for not getting my way. Yes you read that right. I got upset and left because there wasn't enough room for me at the station I wanted to be at. So I got my things and left. I hid behind cars and trash cans hiding from a couple cars that I could tell were looking for me.
3. I've only held two real jobs. I first worked at Mikasa after high school. I stayed there for just over 3 years. After that I began working at Legacy Window Coverings. I am still working there and have for almost 4 years now.

Now to be nice I'm not going to tag anyone. I think we have all been tagged recently.