It's about time for an update!

Well it's about time I do a blog and update those who actually look at the blog about our family! Right now I should be painting walls, but I am in the mood to blog so blog it is!

My wonderful family has left (at my request) to go to the cabin in Arizona for the last week of spring break. I wanted to stay behind and focus on the house and getting things done so when they return we will be closer to having some living space! It's been many weeks now without a kitchen and even more weeks without a bathroom and it's getting kinda old!

So I'll share some pictures... Double click if you want a closer view.

Melanie has fed us a couple of Sunday's since we have no kitchen. These are the kids lineing up for FOOD! Common event when we get together! And I decided to add one of Carter with one of Melanie's kitties cause he's cute!



This is the Kitchen area with the raised ceiling. I have primed it but no paint yet. We have lots of can lights and they look dumb as holes... I hope it doesn't look so bad when it is all done and lit nicely.


This is the nook before it was textured and primed. I just wanted to show you how much bigger it is, and you can see the door to the pantry too. I used two of our old window's and got a new big one because ours didn't open anymore.


This picture is kinda of confusing, but it tells lots of stories...
It shows the area we have for a kitchen now... basically the refridgerator and freezer and then the messy desk area! Then you can see the transition from the raised ceiling in the kitchen to the dineing area. You can also see the doorway to the pantry and the pantry door to the outside! Kinda cool huh?


This just got done today... at the last minute we decided to finish our laundry room while this whole project was going on because they drywallers could do it faster and better than we could later... So! here it is. We painted and got cheap tiles from HD and our friend laid them today, tomorrow he will grout. The paint is just left over from painting the garage, so not my favorite color, but it matched the tile! We are moving the plumbing to the back which I think is AWESOME! I think it will help with the mess that always piles in the middle of the room! And that means I get a sink in our laundry room!!! That is the best part!


And... This is Leisa and I this morning after painting! I don't know why she was laughing so hard.. I promise I didn't do anything. (cute, inocent face... wink, wink)


Well, that's it! We are working a lot and I am stressing a bit less. It is exciting and at this point I see a little glimmer at the end of the tunnel! I have been waiting for this for years and planning as long! I think it will all turn out nicely.

Work is still going well and we are always trying to do new things and try new ways to keep work. I almost said "to grow" but at this point it is all about keeping the work we have! Growth would be nice, but you take what you can get in this economy!!!

I'll touch base again when I have half a brain! :)

The last grandma time??

Tomorrow I go down to Long Beach to be with my Grandma for what may possibly be the last time. Melanie is coming with me. Then later tomorrow after we leave her son and his wife are coming from Arizona and then in the next two weeks the rest of her children will converge on the great state of California... I know their intentions, they will have Grandma back in Mesa when they all leave. They won't leave without her. I am sure quite sure of that. It's probably for the best as far as her health and her loneliness is concerned, so I guess it's OK, but I am sad and I feel like it is a final thing for me. Not a final time to see her, but a final time to spend taking care of her. I have loved it so much. I have enjoyed her and even though fitting it in every week or every other week is sometimes tough, I love it. I will miss her in my life on what has been a pretty consistent basis for the past three years. She is my friend and she fills so many spots in my heart. I am a better person for having been able to be near her. What a blessing it has been to me. I don't want to loose the opportunity I have been blessed with to be with her. But life is constantly changing, I guess I have to get used to it.
I'll miss you so much Grandma. I love you.

10 days ago

Ten days ago I wrote this really sweet post. Ten days ago I felt like I could't wait to blog some more. Ten days ago I cooked the "last family supper"... Nine days ago my kitchen was demolished. Nine days ago I stopped washing dishes. Nine days ago I stopped sweeping the floor. Nine days ago we started eating only on paper and plastic! Nine days ago I lost everything that was familiar about the heart of the home!

I think it will be at least 20 days till my new kitchen is useable. I hope that is a good number. I hope it isn't more. But could be...

It's a great blessing to be able too have a new kitchen, but it is also very out putting, and difficult. I'm focusing on the positive... be happy! I need running water in something other than the one bathroom!!

Hope you are all having a functional week!

Sunday Sweetness

The best thing that happened all day happened just as the closing song of Sacrament meeting was near it's end. During the song I asked Brodric, who had been clingy through the whole meeting, to please sit down on the bench. His sister had taken his seat while he enjoyed jumping around on my lap. So when I asked him to sit on the bench during the closing song he wasn't happy. He crawled under the bench in front of us and laid his head on his older sister's sunday bag. That's when I noticed it, I thought I saw his little mouth moving to the music. Could that be? Was my stubbern, sweet, head strong little boy singing the hymn? As I looked a littler closer to check it out my heart warmed. He was, he was singing the hymn! His little lips forming the words, "Lord, I would follow Thee."

I miss my blog!

I miss blogging. I woke up early this Saturday morning because my little love bug (Brodric) had a lot to say to me! He loves to come climb in bed with us every morning to get warm, even tho ours is the coldest room in the house right now because it has tons of holes to the outside in it! He just talked and talked and I tried to keep up with little responses like "uuu huuu" and "oh", and even a few "really?"'s! He is sweet! So since I was up I started reading blogs from my phone. If the Blackberry Storm is good for anything it is reading blogs! It is the perfect size, when turned sideways, to fit a blog nice and neat in it! So I got cought up on everyone's blogs, and in the process cought the blog fever again! I miss it.

I actually wrote stuff last week but never posted it because by the time I was done writing I had to go to bed and put a pillow over my head just to stay sane... You will understand why when you read it.

So here is the blog from last week.

Have you ever been somewhere so loud all you can hear is your own thoughts?
As I sit here at the computer the kids are outside playing and the jack hammer is about 40 feet away, I am left with the thoughts in my head and my pounding of the hammer against the concrete. If anyone were to yell, or the phone would ring or the cat was scratching at the door, it would be forever lost in all consuming hammer. It’s kind of comforting in a way. The worries of things seem to get lost in it!

I’ve had a interesting month and a half. I can’t seem to get my thoughts together enough to post anything of value to this little blog of mine. I want to blog and I have moments, but they vanish quickly at night when I’m tired or when something else creeps in and steals away the thought.

The things that consume my time rarely change. The things that consume my thoughts don’t change much either. I am left with day to day mundane. Maybe that’s why there’s been less posts lately. To post about the mundane isn’t much fun. Like this…

*I am living in close quarters with the other 5 people in my house as we endure the interesting day to day changes in our little casa. We wash dishes together because the dishwasher has been broken for months, we eat on half a table in the living room because the kitchen is half size while the contractors work, we all share a bathroom, one shower and one toilet because there is dirt and holes in the skeleton of a bathroom that is the master bath…

*I am working too much and my children are starting to give me severe guilt trips over that. They want me home! (I want to be home!) I don’t work out enough although I want to really bad… And…

*I don’t go anywhere else unless I have to! You know, I used to love shopping but now it just means the bank account will show less green if I go, so I don’t really want to as much! I need to hang on to the green so I can finish up the things in this home.

Now, if I were to write about the “random” (as my kids say all too often), what could I tell you... Well…

~I got three new watches this month. I only wanted one, but the three were less than the one and I like them all! Happy Anniversary Billie…
~I am stressed about the cats spraying on my new kitchen when it is put in…
~I am obsessed with this remodel…
Ok see… It starts getting less random as I go on, always back to the remodel!

Oh well, I tried! I guess there will just be less Billieness until this remodel is done! Was there any Billieness before? Who knows, but there is surely less now! Oh where oh where has the Billieness gone? Oh where oh where can it be???

P.S. this is a sneak peak at my new island! I’m in love!



So, I have a whole new blog prepaired for tonight... tune in again next time!

Disappointment and Progress

I was hoping that this post would be written tomorrow night and filled with pictures of us riding quads in the dunes! But... We didn't go to the dunes. I was sad because for once I wanted to go sit in the sand and watch people ride, but due to the sickness that has ravaged Scott and I we weren't able to finish the things that needed to be done in order to go. We gave it valient effort, but it wasn't meant to be.
(this is Brodric after we told him we weren't going... he was watching TV with the helmet on, wishing... cute, cute)


So instead I'll put pictures of the progress of our addition. That will hopefully sufice! It's exciting and although it seems to be moving slower than I expected, I'm just happy it's moving at all!

At first we weren't going to do anything to the nook area, but then we decided to take it out and square it off! I'm so glad we did.


Look at that cute pantry door! I love it... is it normal to love a door? I love my new front door too, and my new french doors! You'll see those later I guess!

In this one (above) you can see the new concrete poured to change the nook. The wall into the kitchen is a temporary wall so we could have the house opened up while not disturbing the kitchen much... So, yes, the kitchen is tiny in the house and the dining table is in the livingroom!

The first two stages of stucco will be done now and the color coat will be done on the entire house near the end of the entire project.

This is our bathroom/closet. It is becoming one big bathroom! Yay, that is exciting!! It will be great! Rip that lanolium out, tear those ugly tiles down!!!

25 Random THINGS

This was a Face Book thing but I am aparently computer lame, because I don't think I did it right. I thought that I spent so much time thinking that I should at least post it on here...

Now remember, this is all the good stuff. I've since thought of a few trials that would be noteworthy of putting on here, but on a blog everything is bright and shiney. So, today you won't hear of the trials, just know that there are trials that are "random" in my life and as I struggle with them, hopefully I become better... That's how it should be!

Now, 25 things!

1. My “real” name is Billie Marie Thomas Noh. I got the “Billie” part from my grandma whose name is Willowean. She hates that name. A few weeks ago at 93 years old she just went down to the bank to change their records to “Billie” so she didn’t have to sign her checks with the Willowean any more! I love the name Billie and I love Billie Sr. (grandma)!
2. I’ve been a wife for 17 years 21 days. I’ve been a mom for 16 years 3 months and 5 days and I have four amazing kids.
3. I love being at the beach sitting with my feet in the sand, or walking in the shallow waves.
4. I live in a little basic house that we have been working on to make it our castle. Most of the big stuff is nearly done, but we still have so many projects to do we will probably be working on it the rest of our lives.
5. I can not wait till our remodel is done and I have a kitchen without mold and with awesome appliances all purchased on ebay!
6. I love living in California except the political “californianess” of it.
7. I have awesome sister friends.
8. I never get sick! Except for yesterday and today because I have the flu…
9. I like to have my hands in dirt and I mess around with gardening sometimes. It makes me smile when things start to grow.
10. I love most ALL kinds of music, and I really like the new jazzy sound coming from these young artists. 
11. I like the evil TV. I like my shows.
12. I don’t love animals but I allow 2 cats, 3 fish, one lizard and a bunch of crickets (lizard food) in our home, and when the boy cat sprays I get super mad.
13. I like to stay up late at night. It’s my time.
14. I like getting up early in the morning and going outside to the garden or to just sit and enjoy the morning…sometimes.
15. I don’t get enough sleep!!! I always need more sleep.
16. Scrapbooking sounded neat so I’ve spent tons of money on all that crafty stuff over the years, but I never use it!
17. I love being in the mountains at the cabin and just relaxing, baking, breathing good air and doing basically nothing.
18. I’ve been to lots of places in the United States, I like to travel.
19. I do NOT like flying. My husband does though. Enough that he bought himself a para-glider and he jumps off mountains. He’s crazy like that.
20. I’m pretty good at bookkeeping and managing an office, but I don’t like working so I hire someone else to do it.
21. I love photography and I want SO bad to learn everything about it! For Christmas I got a good Nikon camera… I need lessons. I also need photo-shop lessons! Anyone? Anyone?
22. I love to give massages to people. I love the connectivity of it! (is connectivity a word?) I also want to go to school and learn all about why what I’m doing feels good! Some day I’m going to! My husband gives the best massages ever!!! Better than anyone. He is amazing!
23. I reeeeeeally want to learn to play the guitar! I better start some lessons for something, there is too much I want to learn to do!
24. I like blogging; it’s a new hobby that makes me smile!
25. I have a good life, I am blessed!

I stole some time!

I decided not to go into work this morning... I left the "new" bookkeeper to fend for herself for just a few hours. (She's doing great, so no worries!!) I thought I'd share some pictures from the past two weeks!
I've been working and trying to hire a part time bookkeeper and a full time receptionist/marketing assistant. So that's how we are going. It has been crazy trying to fill the position that so many great employees have filled over the years. I've done it off and on as needed for the whole time we've been in ServiceMaster so I sorta know what I'm doing, but I haven't done it for the past 4 years and there were things to re-learn and things I don't want to learn so I left it to others, but it's been fun getting back in there... Ok, my feet are wet! I ready to be home more! This full time thing is for the birds!


Scott has been comeing home some days to be "Mr. Mom". He's a great stay at home dad! He cleans, cooks, works and sometimes plays! Maybe I should stay at work! Just kidding, he probably doesn't love it!


Carter had a birthday mid Jan. I haven't had a good post since then, so I better show you what he got... I bought it... I don't know what it is, but he loves it! He also got a keyboard that he LOVES too. He is an amazing kid! I can't believe he's 13.

He had some friends over, they went bowling and they played video games of course, what else do you do when you are a boy? Oh, and Scott took them to 31 Flavors... is that the right place? I think os... He had a good time!


And this is the latest news at our house! The remodel has begun!! They said 4 weeks, but I bet it's more like 6-8 weeks! Kitchen, master bath, front facade, front door/entry and a few other things. The whole house will be restuccoed and it will all look brand new! Yipee! It's exciting to me and I can't wait for it to be done! When it is I'll put before and after pictures.

K, if I don't get into work I am goning to be in big trouble... Or at least I may have a bookkeeper who is super bored! I would love to blog more! It's hard to be clever when I am under a time pressuer! :)