books and reminders

My niece and I have been reading Charlotte's Web and finally finished it this week, two days before school started.  I am pretty tenderhearted when it comes to stories about friends.  I will be honest.  I cried when Charlotte was dying and after she did die.  Now you might be thinking, "You are a grown woman!  Why would you cry?"  I have read that story several times and it always gets to me.  This time around it reminded me of a beautiful girl I was friends with who passed away nearly five years ago.  I couldn't help but think of her.  She was like Charlotte:  strong, kind, wise, funny, smart, etc.  She helped other along life's way and never ever made me feel bad about myself, always built me up.  She also left behind her child for someone to watch over.  As the anniversary of her death, I have been thinking of her dad as well, who passed away with her.  He was such a great man.

Kennedy, my niece, sat listening to me read when Charlotte is telling Wilbur she won't be coming home with him.  She said, "Why are you crying?"  I said, "Because I know what Wilbur feels like."  I kept thinking of how different life is when they are gone.  I remember walking into the house the first time and every time after that, expecting them to come talk to me, or at least be there.  What a weird void.  And by weird, I mean awful.  I guess that is the point of life though.  To love others and find our way back to them. 

Anyway, this is probably a ridiculous post, but it is what it is.  I love that book.  I love my dear friends.  I miss them.  I am going to go cry for a minute now. 

janalee

Laughter

If you want a good laugh, watch this:

Posture!

Friends

So, I have some awesome people in my life.

When I served an LDS mission in the Oregon Eugene, these wonderful people came into my life.  Rhonda and Don are two of my favorite people and have made an impact on my life.  I cannot express the love and admiration I have for them.

They were coming to Vegas for a wedding and I was lucky enough to get off work a little early due to a power outage and make it down in time to spend some time with them.  The ride home wasn't even that bad considering the fact that it was so late.  Good thing for good music and friends.  I am so thankful for them!

So anyway, I know I look like a hot mess in a lot of the photos, but I love them anyways.



Other friends I should blog about are the friends who gave me spiders.

When I first moved in to my new home, I had spiders galore!  Like out of control.  We're talking huge, hairy, nasty-asty, spiders that I had to vacuum up instead of stomp on.  (Not very Oregonian, I know.)  Anyways, I posted on FB "Spiders: 0  Janalee:  8" that week.  This past week, we had a game night and they surprised me with money spiders!  They are made with tons of tiny pins, pipe cleaners for legs and pom poms for eyes, and instead of being covered in hair, they are covered in dollars!  How cool is that?  And look at how cute they are:

Super cute!!!

I have great friends and I feel so blessed.  Shout out to all my homegirls from game night.  I love you guys!

Welp, I am happy!  See?

And I hope you are happy as well.

Janalee

Dressing Up!

Yo yo yo.

So I bought this gem of a dresser from a yard sale for 10 bucks:

Look at the contact paper, people.  Look at that.  It was covering the entire thing.  The lady had stapled it after she had previously glued it down.  Because, as we all know, glue doesn't work on paper....Wow.  It was quite the time getting the contact paper off.  If you search on Pinterest.com, it will tell you to blow dry the paper and it will come up.  I tried that and it didn't help at all.  So I used a fancy stapler remover like this:
 
Combine that with wet towels to get the paper up more, goo gone, and dish soap and water, and it might work out.  It made my hands super raw though, so they were gross for a few days.  Oh well.

Anyway, I scraped it off as much as I could, let the towels work their magic for a few hours, and removed the paper from the dresser.  The goo gone and soap help get that nasty glue off.

Then, I primed that baby.  It smelled awesome in my house.

Then it was time to paint that sucker.


And I couldn't decide if I should do it black or blue.

So I did both.  First I painted it black and applied a second coat.  Then I put tape over parts of it to make a chevron pattern.  Its not perfect, but nothing ever is.  So, alas, here is the final product.

I know a couple of them are a bit crooked, but its all good, right?  Anyway, I'm just glad that bloody contact paper is out of my life!

Janalee