Hoover SteamVac Silver - The Before and Afters

Awhile back I had made a post on Facebook regarding my complete and total awe of the ability of the Hoover SteamVac Silver carpet steam cleaner vacuum... Well, here are my before and after photos. Some are more impressive than others... some drastic changes just couldn't be captured by the photos. I should also admit here that we're working with an older Berber carpet... about 10 years old now... and it's been through some rough stuff out here in the country!

Fireplace BeforeFireplace After

Couch Floor BeforeCouch Floor After

Grace's Door BeforeGrace's Door After

Living Room Entry BeforeLiving Room Entry After

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Camp Barnabas and Fun in the Sun

With our warmer Missouri temps, we decided to crack out the little pool before we set up the bigger one this Memorial weekend. Grace enjoyed getting wet in her suit and piling sand all over the place. And, of course, there was MUCH flower picking going on.

We also had the opportunity to visit the now famous Camp Barnabas... it was featured on Ty Pennington's Extreme Makeover show a few years back. It's a great place geared for kids with disabilities and other challenges - summer camp extreme if you ask me. They offer the typical things like canoeing, camping, horseback riding, petting/handling zoos, swimming, staying in cabins, etc. They also offer an extreme outdoor course that would have me peeing my pants! (I don't care for heights.) Anyway, it was neat to get to go there and check it all out... thanks to Jack Henry & Associates... my husband's employer (my ex-employer in my pre-Grace days...). I guess they sponsored the camp in building a new cabin or something along those lines, so the camp opened up the place for a JHA night. I'll posts some pics here of our activities... shoulda brought a suit!

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We're Growing!

Well, yes, in many senses... we have another baby on the way in July... Grace is growing like a weed... the baby chickens are starting to look like BIG birds... and the garden is looking better each day. We've had great weather here in SW MO! So, I'm going to post some pictures of our pit garden...
Pit one has sweet potatos, spaghetti squash (to come), cantaloupe, peppers (all kinds), and butterstick squash.
Pit two also has sweet potatos (the vines will arch over the two pits), okra, green beans, green onions, and zucchini.
Pit three has corn and tomatoes... an ABUNDANCE of tomatoes... romas, lemon boys, better boys, and many many cherry & grape tomatoes... those Grace eats like candy!
The greens pit has spinach (I hope I can make it do a little better this year than last...), lettuce, mesclun mix lettuces, basil, cilantro, and radishes.
And that's the garden... we'll be adding a watermelon & pumpkin pit outside the main garden as well. That little setup will be an experiment in itself!

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It's Time to Grow...

...some vegetables and some more chickens. Yep, it's that time. Spring is always a lot of work and yet a lot of fun out here. Mother's day weekend has come to be my weekend for putting in the garden. It's kind of our official frost-free date around here. Well, the rows were turned, the weeds pulled, and the veggies were planted. They look so much happier out here than in their little transplant pots!
As if there isn't enough to do around here, we added a 2nd chicken house... it's the "Kindergarten" house. It's a miniature house made to keep the new baby chickens separate from the big girls until they're acclimated and ready to hold their own out in the "wild" - ha ha ha! Courtney did a fantastic job on it. I'm always amazed at the amount of thought and design he puts into this stuff. And his buildings are built to withstand hurricane force winds... quite literally. Amazing.

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Don't Look Away for Even a Second!

My little angel... my little precious... my little sweetie-pie... my little---shameful child! Well, maybe it was my fault for not being on her every second of the day yesterday, but darn it... we were having a good day until nap time. Wow, did it go downhill from there or what!?!?

My little child of perfection decided she didn't want to take a nap... not exactly the most astonishing decision she's ever made... but, apparently she got bored. VERY BORED. She decided to powder one of her baby doll's diapers. Except she didn't just powder the diaper. She powdered her entire room. And apparently, that wasn't to her liking. She then proceeded to smear petroleum jelly on her carpet... and her face - sure wish I'd have taken a picture of that! She had quite a powder-coated petroleum jelly beard when I found her. But, in all of her wisdom, I believe it donned on her at some point that the mess she'd made on her floor just might get her in trouble, so apparently, she had also tried to clean up all the goo off her floor by pouring water on it. OH GEEZ KID - ARE YOU TRYING TO GET A SPANKING OR WHAT!?!?

Well, it's mostly cleaned up now, but the floor is still wet and the petroleum jelly is still coating some of the carpet... that stuff is almost impossible to clean!

Anyone want to have a 2 1/2 yr old? ;-)

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