When You're Depending on the Internet for Pretty Much Everything...

...and your internet starts having a problem the day before your IT professional husband takes off for far off places, it quickly becomes a problem.  We use the internet for television, we use the internet for music, we use the internet for shopping, we use the internet for getting library books (because we're lazy that way), we use the internet for banking and paying bills, we use the internet for our landline, and we use the internet for, well, surfing the internet...seriously, we use the internet for everything.  When I say "internet problem", I actually mean the internet keeps going down completely, as in, completely not there!!  I tell you, we've become so spoiled, I was looking at my Roku-hooked-up television and asking it, "what do you mean, "Not Connected"?  We were just watching Defying the Nazis on PBS!!!"  (Or, the finale of American Ninja Warrior!!, or that new show The Good Place!! -- it really depends upon which night we're talking about here...)  Trust me, though, it was a PROBLEM.


So, in addition to not whining myself when I discovered we had a big internet problem, I had to be mature and parental when confronted with a teenage daughter who WAS NOT HAPPY about the internet problems. (The internet problem required her to use a lot more data on her phone and her speed was throttled back!!!!)    Interestingly, your son doesn't care--he just uses the internet at his girlfriend's apartment - problem solved.  Sigh.  Anyway, when you discover the problem is, in fact, at your end and NOT at the CenturyLink end, it becomes an annoying problem which YOU have to solve.

Fresh out of the Amazon box--still in cellophane--waiting for Superman.

 Actually, you just tell your husband who is off adventuring in far off lands that there is a BIG INTERNET PROBLEM and he has to fix it...it was in the marriage vows he said all those years ago and adventuring doesn't absolve him of that responsibility.  (No, seriously, it was in the vows...check the fine print.  Never mind that we were married long before the internet was a thing.  The "handle the internet problems" vow is right that after the "fix all the car problems" vow.  Check it out...you'll see that I'm right.)

The cellophane is off and, if you look carefully, you can see my cell phone in the background off to the right and you can see there is an active call on the screen.  This was the part where Superman was starting to tell me what to do.

When you tell your IT professional husband that you're having a problem with the internet, he does magical things from those previously mentioned far off lands, logs into your home modem, verifies the problem is, in fact, on your end (because he's pretty sure you don't really know what is going on with your home network and its three different wifi networks--yes, three!), and jumps onto Amazon and orders you a whiz bang router to solve your problems. 

Apparently this lovely router will have four channels (upgrading from our current three) and will solve the bandwidth hog problems we'd been having before we had the "real" internet problem.

This huge thing arrived on my front porch this morning.  Doesn't it look impressive?  After a brief phone call this evening, it is now powered up and plugged into our modem.  That doesn't mean it is busily solving my internet problem.  That will require Superman to log in and configure it to his liking in the wee hours of my morning, so I will have another night of internet problems, but this, my friends, is the light at the end of the tunnel (or so I'm told!)

When the winner of "Who is your favorite human?" leaves the country...

When he wasn't travelling, Superman loved to begin his days at home playing "Who's your favorite human?" as he would dole out treats to the dogs...

Jack is a pretty boy!

Jack, our youngest at only three, has taken the end of the game hard...despite the fact that Superman was, in fact, really just a close second to Jack's true favorite:   Buttercup.  Jack loves Buttercup the most, but the same day Superman left was the day classes started at the college for Buttercup, so she's gone all day this week, too.

Buried in his Minion blanket...Jack is sad.

Even his Minion blanket isn't cheering Jack up...

Poor Jack!

Poor Jack.

 

 

The Adventure Continues...

Well, after a bit of a false start earlier this year, I really am dusting off this blog...and here's why:

 

So, this happened yesterday!

After four years stateside, the itch grew too powerful and Superman has headed off into the wild blue yonder again!  My blogging is a great way for him to feel like he knows what's going on back here in the wilds of Eastern Washington.   So, to catch you up...my kids aren't "kids" any more:  Charming is 25, Valiant is 20, and Buttercup is fast approaching 18...it will be a bit of a balancing act for me, sharing the fun bits without compromising any of the kids' privacy, but, hey, it should be a piece of cake, right? 

2 Gorilla boxes and 2 huge bags...

A question:  If you knew you had to pack everything you'd possibly need for the next four and half months (minimum!) before you'd be able to restock anything, would you be able to fit it into these boxes and suitcases?  Where he is going is pretty remote...no FPO/APO service, so anything he wanted had to come with him.  We're talking clothes, gym clothes, toiletries, bug spray, sheets, blankets, towels, five months of nutrition shakes, shoes...even a shower curtain.  Frankly, I was amazed how little Superman took...I've been trying to figure out how little I could get away with...I'm pretty certain I'd need another Gorilla box at least.

Your entire life in two boxes 32" x 14" x 12"

 The Gorilla boxes are a terrific way to get a lot of stuff safely from here to there--a friend of our ordered them from the PX at Fairchild for us, as they're standard in the military--hard-sided, but light...I found the suitcases on QVC, of all places, and they collapse down to the size of a college textbook (with the wheels inside), so they will require little to no space to store.  This isn't our first time doing this, so a lot of thought went into how to get all this stuff packed.  Still, you're looking at $1200+ in luggage fees. 


The best part, though?  I just got word from Superman that all of his luggage joined him at his final destination!!!


Anyway, there you have it...this is what is new this week in the Nagle5 world... stay tuned...it's never dull around here...

Friendly Front Porch - Another Pinterest Inspired Project

I made a deal with myself when I realized how much time I spend on Pinterest.   I have to translate the inspiration I get from my pins into action. 


The Pinspiration:  Beautiful project by
9 o'clock Dance of Joy

This particular idea came from a pin from via The Diary of Dave's Wife who pinned a beautiful welcome sign posted by 9 o'clock Dance of Joy. 



I loved the original post so much that I immediately shared it via email with Superman.  Obviously, Superman loved it, too, because the very next day I had a post with a hook!  Time for me to get my fanny moving and figure out the rest of it.



My Silhouette machine made this so easy!

 Superman was able to take a board and use his router to give me the edge I wanted and a can of spray paint and some time with my Silhouette machine later, we had a sign for the post. 



Loved it just like this, but it needed a little something else.

I loved the way the sign with the post turned out and thought it looked really sweet with the cat we already had on the porch, but I felt like it needed something else.  So, I went on to use the spray paint to update some old plastic terra cotta pots to match and they are now lining the stairs to the front porch.    Looks fabulous!   Not bad for not too much time and $10, wouldn't you agree?

It is fabulous!  This is our interpretation...friendly, isn't it??

This was a simple project (at least the parts I did!).  Honestly, I think we spent more time waiting for paint to dry than anything else.  Oh, did I mention the best part, Sam-I-Am approves, too!

Sam, likes the flowers, too!

Pinspirations!  They're great, aren't they?



Scrabble Valentine's Tiles

I wish I could find the blog that gave me this idea, but a quick trip through my Pinterest boards didn't reveal a pin, so it is going uncredited.  Still, just know I didn't think of this on my own.

Aren't these cool?

Anyway, bought these giant Scrabble tiles for family friends for Christmas and when Superman saw them, he said he could have made them.  Well, yes, he could have, but we don't have a router set up to route the individual letters, and besides, I'd already purchased the gift.

See the slightly routered edge?  I love how the grain of the pine is so clear.

Turned out, Superman was right.  These were a quick and easy project.  He made quick work of cutting "tiles" out of 1 x 6 pine board, finished the edges with his router, sprayed on a few thin coats of lacquer and handed them off to me.  



Since they were specifically for Valentine's, I decided to use
a font with more flourish than the actual Scrabble font.

(I think I actually spent more time playing with fonts on the Silhouette machine than he spent prepping the tiles!)  I applied the vinyl letters (with their appropriate points value, of course) and they were done.



Scrap wood and a little time gave us a really cool decoration!

Love them!   Best of all, we used scrap wood, had the lacquer, and the vinyl, so they were a free project!

Absence Did NOT Make the Heart Grow Fonder...

When Superman came home in November, he was so happy to be home and so grateful to be out of his CHU ("Containerized Housing Unit") that he found most of our home "perfect".  Most of our home.  That rosy view of things did NOT extend to our stairs. 

Ugly Carpet, Squeaky Stairs

Nope, every time he went up or down the stairs, he got more and more disgruntled with them.  He started researching "How to Replace Your Stairs" online.  He started watching a lot of YouTube videos.  He started looking at materials at Home Depot and Lowe's.  He started his campaign to convince me it could be done in one day.  (Hey!  It was an important point...all the bedrooms are upstairs!)

Not one of the treads was made with a single board.  No wonder
the darned things squeaked and felt wobbly!!

Finally, the disgusting (yes, disgusting) carpet was ripped up and we quickly discovered that a) there was a good reason the stairs never seemed firm and b) of course, it was going to be bigger job than Superman had anticipated.

Hey, let's just use leftover 2 x 4s!!

The treads weren't actually treads...they were made of scrap wood left over from the initial construction of our home.



Ooh, yeah, let's use leftover particle board siding for the risers, too!

The risers weren't right, either...they were actually made of leftover siding and just turned around.  Fabulous construction, isn't it?  We were appalled.

The view from the top of the stairs...stipped down to the stringer.  Three
stairs at a time, so the upstairs wasn't cut off for too long.

So, it was all the way down to the stringers and starting from scratch...poor Superman!  He enlisted some child labor, though, the job went quickly.


Ah, this is what treads and risers are supposed to look like!

Superman kept his promise and were replaced in a day.  The end of the first day saw first phase of the project completed...but not before "someone" let the crowbar fall back behind the stairs and slide all the way to the bottom step.

And off comes the riser to retrieve the crowbar...and a few screws that were
dropped along the way...

A little "de" construction was necessary to actually finish the job for the day.  (Still not sure which of the men bears responsibility for the crowbar mishap...it is dependent upon which one of them you ask!)  Finally, to finish the job, the next day, Superman added stained bullnose treads and finished risers.

Aren't they gorgeous?  Best of all, they're so sturdy and quiet! 
Functional beauty...absolutely fabulous!

And, just like that, we went from disgusting stairs to beautiful stairs.  Well worth the inconvenience, wouldn't you say?

Back to Blogging after a Four-Month Hiatus!

It has been four months plus since my last blog post.  You know how people always say things like, "Oh, I can't believe how much time has passed?"  Um, I am not going to say that!  I can completely believe it.  We've had a crazy busy past four months and I'm actually glad that things have finally calmed down enough that I have the time to blog again. 

Let me catch you up:

Superman is home for good!  Woot!  Yes, indeed!  After almost three years (!) of contracting overseas, Superman came home.  Best of all, we managed to "sneak" him home a month earlier than the kids expected!  We pulled off the last, best suprise of the journey.  The kids thought their dad was coming home on December 1, so imagine the surprise when the two younger kids registered the sound of my car pulling into the garage, registered the sound of the door opening, didn't even look up when someone walked up the stairs, and then caught sight of their dad!  It was amazing.  We kept the surprises going by inviting Charming to meet up with us for dinner and got to see the look on his face when he walked into the restaurant and saw his father!  Seriously, being able to surprise your adult and almost adult children is NOT easy and oh-so fun...

The spider knew my secret!

The next night we had dinner at the house and the boys decided to play around with Nagle family deadlifts.  (Seriously, Crossfit families are just weird!)

Boys will be boys...the hardest part?  Holding on to the bar!

Charming deadlifted Superman...

"I've got you, Dad!"

Then Valiant stepped up to deadlift Superman...

Valiant was up next...

Then Superman deadlifted little Buttercup.  With...

Buttercup had no problem holding on!

...and without the bar!

But she found it a little more difficult to be the bar!

Then life began to settle back into normal-for-us Nagle5 craziness.  Man, it is good to have Superman home!

I hope you'll enjoy the ride as I fast forward you through the holidays and the projects and the other good stuff that makes up a normal life...I'll give you a few hints of what is coming up:  Scrabble, stairs, bed, hearts, and frames!

Life in the Nagle5 Household

Superman is suffering from "short-timers" in a bad way.  As he counts down the days and continues with his job search (trying to land a job from 12000 miles away), he is often frustrated and impatient.  (Let's be real...he's not finding the Middle East to be a garden spot in the best of circumstances and these days, we're not seeing the best of circumstances!)  My job right now is to keep him upbeat and positive and distract him from the days oh-so-slowly turning on the calendar.  To that end, I try to share the humor and chaos of life at home.  Everything from the cats bringing live birds into the house (two this month (!), both of which we saved from an unsavory end) to tales of life in high school to my failed attempts at mastering a handstand (grr!) have become the language of life in the Nagle5 household. 



Who knew earbuds were so vital to daily life?

It seems the artists who draw our favorite comic strips have doubled down and joined the effort to keep Superman smiling.  So many have struck me, that I started cutting them out and adding commentary for Superman.  We get the local paper (comics are a great way to introduce your child to reading the newspaper!) and  I'm linking to the comics directly and sharing these with you here because Superman struggles to get internet that allows surfing websites and he'll get this as an email.  Here is a sampling of what I've cut out:  Our favorites these days are Baby Blues (no babies here anymore, but these guys obviously live what they draw...three kids are exponentially more than two, I tell you!), Zits (I haven't found the hidden camera that keeps capturing Valiant, but I know it is here), and Off the Mark (definitely our weird sense of humor.)

Life with Valiant:

Seriously...where is the hidden camera in my house?

Life with Buttercup:

After raising two boys, I feel qualified to say that girls are
different...no better, no worse, but definitely different!

(And don't you think Charming is relieved to have moved out of the house so I don't compare his life to life in the comic strips?)

Remember...

(Photo credit: http://skeptikai.com/2011/09/page/2/)

“Now, we have inscribed a new memory alongside those others. It’s a memory of tragedy and shock, of loss and mourning. But not only of loss and mourning. It’s also a memory of bravery and self-sacrifice, and the love that lays down its life for a friend–even a friend whose name it never knew. “
- President George W. Bush, December 11, 2001

Automotive Repair? Me?

You know that moment when your turn your turn signal on and it blinks at a double the normal pace?  You know what that means, right?  It means one of your blinker bulbs has died.   Ugh!  What an annoyance.  I know it is not a big deal, but I've never done replaced a blinker bulb...front or rear...on any car I've ever owned.  Seriously...I've always had a dad, a boyfriend, or a husband to take care of these little nuisances for me.  (I know, very disgrace to women everywhere...I'll deal with the shame.)

This is the tail end of my car...not exciting, I know.

 Still, I mentioned to Superman that I had a blinker bulb out and he suggested I could take it to our local mechanic and have him change it out for $20 or so.  $20!  to change a lightbulb?  Seriously.  I had to be able to do it myself...how hard could it be?  I'm smart, I'm capable, I do know how to change a lightbulb.  And I certainly don't want to pay $20 for someone to change a lightbulb for me.

I determined that it was the rear blinker bulb that was dead.  Then I went to my local Napa Auto Parts and had them look up what kind of bulb I needed.  (There is a book for that...did you know?)



This is what lurks behind the colored lense.  Three little lightbulbs.

After that, all I needed to do was actually change the bulb...still, I didn't really know how to do that.  So, I did what every modern person does these days when they want to know how to do anything...I searched YouTube for instructions:  How to change the bulb on a Suburban Tail Light...  And, of course, I found a video.


See how the socket is blackened?  It has gone bad...had a short
or something...the bulb didn't light up.

Easy, peasy, right?  Wrong.  The new lightbulb didn't light up.  Turned out that my tail light socket had actually burned out and I needed to replace the socket.  Another quick trip to Napa (I love those guys...they are all guys who worked on cars as kids) and I had a new socket. 



There you have it...the burned out socket.

It was simple work to switch out the socket, I had already disconnected everything that needed to be disconnected.  After that, it was short work to unhook the connector and switch out the sockets.

New sockets...the package came with both driver's side and passenger
side sockets for $3 more than just one.  You never know...

Back home again, I switched out the socket, put in all the bulbs, and tested my turn signal.  Ta da!  It worked!

Let there be light!!  Woot!  I did it correctly and my lightbulb lit up!

There you have it...my foray into the world of automotive repair.  Have I mentioned I'm ready for Superman to come home?

Best part?  I got it all back together correctly.  Looks just
like a normal, unremarkable tail light.  Success!

I'll be this would have cost even more than $20 if I'd paid someone to do it.  I am pretty darned proud of myself.  Have you ever changed a tail light?  Is this one of those things that everyone has done and I just never knew it?

Still, I'd say this counts as productive, wouldn't you?

A Trip to the Dump and some Broccoli Beef

My Valiant has been desperately trying to share a cold/flu with me since Sunday.  I'm doing my level best to graciously decline his generosity.   So far, so good, but it has been touch and go for these past few days.  No Crossfit workouts, that is for sure.  Still, I haven't been idle. 

Monday, I signed Buttercup up for gymnastics...the studio makes you sign up in July for classes that begin after Labor Day.  Weird, isn't it?  Valiant felt cruddy enough that he actually spent the day in bed...that is pretty sick, for a 16-year old! 

Tuesday, I headed out with Buttercup (again!) to have our third consultation with orthodontists, trying to make our final pick for her braces.  We didn't go with the one we met with that morning, but it did cement our decision.  She's thrilled to be moving forward and getting her braces on August 6.  She's been waiting and waiting.  (Completely different than my boys were, that's for certain.)

Today?  Today I finally decided to tackle a pile of yard and garage debris that needed to get taken to the dump.  Unlike our home in California, the trash service here doesn't pick up whatever you've left at the curb.  Until I moved here, I'd never been to the dump.  I wonder if that is unusual?  Have you been to the dump?  So, anyway, here you don't just put out whatever you want and have it taken away on trash day.  No...you either have to have your trash neatly bagged up (how do you do that with scrap wood?) or take it yourself.  So, I procrastinated...I procrastinated so long that we had 440 pounds of stuff loaded up in the back of my Suburban...$22 worth.  I must say, it felt good to get all that stuff out of the yard!  What?!  You thought I'd take pictures?  Seriously? of the dump?  Um, trust me, you don't want pictures of the dump.  Still, you can read about it here...we have a waste-to-energy plant, which I think is kind of cool.

After I got back, I did more yard clean-up and made Broccoli Beef for dinner.  Seriously, if you like Broccoli Beef at your favorite Chinese food restaurant, you need to try this recipe.  It is so easy!

Broccoli Beef
from "Quick & Easy Enjoy Chinese Cuisine"

1/2 pound flank steak, sliced thin, against the grain
2 teaspoons corn starch (can subsitute arrowroot powder for paleo cooking)
2 teaspoons soy sauce (can substitute coconut aminos for paleo cooking)
1/2 teaspoon sugar (can omit for paleo cooking)
1 1/2 pounds broccoli florets
2 Tablespoons oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of soup broth (I used beef)
Some cornstarch for thickening (can substitute arrowroot powder for paleo cooking)

1.  Place thin-sliced flank steak in bowl with 2 teaspoons cornstarch, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, and 1/2 teaspoon sugar.  Toss and set aside for a few minutes.

2.  Heat oil in pan, add meat mixture and cook until done.  Remove from pan and set aside.

3.  In hot pan, add broccoli, salt, and soup broth.  Cover and bring to a boil, cooking for 2-3 minutes.

4.  Add meat back into pan and toss.  Add cornstarch to thicken if desired.  Serve over rice or eat as is.

That is it!  Isn't that easy?  This cookbook is amazing because it is so simple.  If you are at all interested in cooking Chinese food, this book is so simple and the results are so fabulous, I encourage you to try it.

Yet another productive day as we work our way closer to Superman's return home!  97 days and counting!!  Did you know that we're five week from Labor Day (already!)?  Time sure flies.   I feel good about getting things done...how are you doing with your goals?

Phase 1 of our "Big" Kennel Project is completed...Day 116 of our Productivty Project

A few days ago, I left Superman a hair raising status update on FB detailing how I'd spent the afternoon and evening in the garage playing with just about every power tool we own, plus paint.  I think he nearly had a heart attack, especially after I wouldn't tell him what I'd been working on.

Phase 1 - Finished!

I've finally done the last of the painting, so I can say we've finished Phase 1 of the Big Kennel Project and I'm ready to share the pictures of our progress to date.

This is where we began:



Dog kennel:  Unfinished dry wall, exposed insulation (thanks to Lucy!)
Unfinished fence boards to protect the drywall from the chewer (aka Lucy).
Basically, it was a terrible eyesore.

Honestly, the dog have never complained, but it was certainly an eyesore.  I've been promising Buttercup that I'd do something about it for more than a year and my productivity project seemed to have been the perfect motivation.  Still, we had the self-imposed constraint of using stuff we already had laying around to manage our transformation.  This had to be a completely free project.

Step 1 - Buttercup was itching to get painting, so I handed her the "mango madness" left from our formerly "Macaroni & Cheese" basement and set her free.

Buttercup makes quick work of the painting.

She made quick work of it, even with it needing two coats.  (We didn't primer first.)  After that, I got to work with the "construction" part of the project.

This wall needed to be insulated, so I used a box
cutter and a knife and cut a piece of rigid insulation to fit.

Since my plan was to use the leftover wainscoting from our bathroom project, I added 1x1 for structure.  The nails needed somewhere to go, right?

After that, I pieced together the wainscoting and installed it all.   The fiberglass insulation was fine, it just needed to get tucked.

It was hotter than heck in that get-up, but those are my "grungies", so that
is how I geared up for this project.  (Plus, I used my nifty work gloves my
sister sent me...they really project your hands, but your exposed fingertips
make working in them a breeze!

This is how the wainscoting part of the project turned out.  Doesn't it look fabulous?

Finished wainscoting and trim board...

After that, I added some trim boards and moulding, painted the fence boards, and added a decal for fun.

A few coats of paint did wonders for these boards!

 Phase 1 finished and we did it all with scrap materials we had in the garage.  It was a great way to get more familiar with all of our power tools.  Phase 2 will be astroturf, a new food dish holder, and a new dog bed.  Oh, as I'm looking at the picture, I'm thinking ceiling paint should be added to the list, too!

Phase 1 is Finished, but Phase 2 is bouncing around in my mind.

116 Days and counting til Superman comes home.  I'd say we get to count this one as productive, too, wouldn't you?