Family Fun Evening???

Sorry there will be no pictures with this post.  I needed to write and share our family fun evening experience before I forget.  We had the our High Priest group leader and a member of the stake presidency visit our home last week.  They asked how family home evening was and our kids piped up and said we don't do it anymore.  WHATEVER!!!  I explained that we have family home evening on Sundays and on Mondays we do a family fun evening cuz our kids complained they never get to do anything fun,  just taught the gospel.  We have been slackers and haven't been very faithful with the family fun evenings lately.  So hearing President Phelps express that we should be doing it, we decided we would play a mean game of kickball for family fun evening.  We almost didn't do it on account it was freezing outside.  But because of the begging of a little red head we strapped on the winter attire and headed out.  Mike and Ellie against Brook, Jase, and myself.  As we played, Mike was being his usual self in trying to be stupid and not serious about the game.Acting like Mr. Bean)  This bothered Ellie quite a bit.  For some reason she has that competitive spirit in her. (gets it from her dad.) She was bugged that her dad wasn't giving everything that he had.  Finally the tears began even to the point of her doing the sobbing cry.  She even mumbled loud enough (several times) for all to hear that her dad sucks:)  The first time Mike and I heard it we busted up laughing.  Finally I consulted with Mike and we made a trade.  By this time, Ashley who was home visiting came out and joined us.  So now it was Ellie, Ashley and myself against, Mike, Brook, and Jase.  The tears dried up and we had a good game going with Mike still being a goof.  This made Jase feel more determined to win and Brook felt she was doing everything. ( those were her words.) To make matters worse, it didn't help that Ellie kicked towards Jase. She fell to the ground and Jase missed her when he threw the ball at her.  This ticked him off.  So he grabs the ball and begins chasing her with much determination on his face.  He misses her again.  Ashley and I were laughing so hard because of his determination and frustration.  This just set off the boy even more.  Soon after we called it quits.  The kids went in and got ready for bed.  Boy was there plenty of contention in our home.  I said to Mike, "this is why we don't do family fun evening."  As Mike and I layed in bed last night and reflected on the great game of kickball.  I let him know that he gave it his all and that's all we can ask for, even if he did suck.  We laughed and laughed about our mighty kickball game that was to bring such joy and love to our family.  This morning Ellie felt a little better about life and her dad joked around with her saying, "Ellie I gave it my best."  She didn't buy his garbage for a minute.  At least she can laugh about it now.:D  Maybe next week we can play by ourselves in our own rooms and call it family fun evening.  At least there will be no contention.

Back to school.....and I'm lovn it:)

 
Tomorrow it will be officially one week since the kids went back to school.  It was a rough start, but since today was the first day that my kids have been at school all day. I can say..... I'm lovn it.  I know I should be sad that all my children are in school all day, but I'm not.  I don't think the problem is having all my kids home, its the thousands (or so it seems) of friends that are over every day.  Last week brook had early out every day because of first grade testing.  I then became the go to house for all of the first graders and preschool kids to come and play.  Needless to say I didn't see the greatness of school til today.  Jase also struggled making the change to Jr. High.  I think he was more tired the whole week.  He would come home griping about the bus, this and that class.  Today... no gripes:)  I can't believe what a person can accomplish when there are no kids around to distract from what one wants to accomplish.  I walked for an hour and a half (too long)  worked on my lesson.  Cleaned all the bathrooms, and cleaned the house.  Worked on my lesson again, did some volleyball club stuff, weeded outside, showered and now I am writing about back to school.  I still have a half an hour before they are home.  Yea me!!!  The Sunday before school started, I had the kids fill out a questionnaire about them.  Then they decorated signs that told what grade they were going in.

 Then next night was Monday and Mike gave them a fathers blessing.  Then they were off to bed...late of course.  This is Tuesday morning before they left to go to school.

Mandy couldn't dress up.  She had to wear her volleyball warm up and her student government shirt because she was representing her class as 10th grade VP and they had a volleyball game in Payson. 

Jase was looking like he finally cared how he looked.  I think he loved his new shoes the most!

Ellie was nervous and excited to have Mr. Larsen.  She has never had a male teacher.

 

Brook started first grade.  All day finally.  She of course loved her new zebra outfit.... me too!!

 

 

On pinterest I read about a mom who made her kids giant cookies the first day of school.  I thought this would be a fun thing to do.  So here is my attempt at a giant cookie.
 

MY LITTLE GIRL ISN'T LITTLE ANY MORE

We are on the count down of school getting out and it only seems a tid crazy at our home.  Ashley will be graduating from high school in a week and a half.  Not only are we trying to get school finished up but trying to help her decide what she really wants to do with her life.  She is planning on heading to St. George soon after she graduates.  She is looking for a dental assisting job and going to live with Grandma and Grandpa Turek for the summer. She attended a Dixie college enrollment seminar (whatever you want to call it.)  Mike went with her and found out the professor that represented Dixie wasn't too impressive.  We have questioned if it is a good idea for Ash to attend this fall.  We sat down and chatted with Ashley about what her purpose of going to school is.  Well, we found out that she would like us to fork out 2 grand so she can socialize.  Hmmm not to sure that's a good reason.  So for now we know she is heading south and we will play it by ear of whether or not she begins school in the fall.  Thought I would add her graduation announcement.  She wasn't so sure about her mom being the photographer and designer of her graduation announcements, but I think they turned out pretty good!!!  Good Luck Ash.... LOVE YA

The BIG 20th Anniversary

I finally got Mike to take me some where to celebrate our marriage. Not just dinner or a movie but really going somewhere. I knew he would never go for Hawaii or some romantic beach. I figured if we were going to go somewhere it would have to be something he loved. He suggested that we could go to a professional tennis tournament in California. I was game for that. He then tried to back out and suggested we go to some place local. Unless your a snow skier , Northern Utah is not the place to go to do something fun. I finally convinced him this tennis tournament could be something fun to do. He hates to travel so the thought of airplanes, crowds, finding our way through California, hotels, etc didn't seem quite worth the hastle. He finally agreed and we purchased the tennis tickets and airline tickets. It was then up to me to find the rental, hotel, etc. Never being in this town it was hard to decide how far a hotel would be from the tournament. I finally found the closest one that was worth the money to spend. For the next few weeks the excitement grew. I was a little nervous leaving Ashley in charge of the other 4 kids but we figured she needs to learn how to be responsible. Well, I can honestly say we loved it!! The airline was on time and wonderful. I would recommend Jet Blue any day over American airline. (that's the airline we used to go to Disneyland a few months ago.) We flew into Long Beach....Talk about a small airport with little hastle. So much better than LAX. We walked across the street to get our car that we had rented. So off to Indian Wells we went. Of course we stopped for lunch before continuing our 2 hour drive. It always amazes me of the amount of traffic in California. It took a little longer to drive but we arrived in Palm Springs safe and sound. (this is where our hotel was.) We checked in and relaxed for a while and then headed to Indian Wells. What a beautiful place.

It was so fun to see these professional tennis players play. You see them on TV all the time but here they are right in front of your face.

(Fish and Rodick)

Andy Murray was practicing on the practice courts and a few times he walked right up to where I was standing. Mike had walked off to watch some other players warm up so I was by myself when Murray came close to me. He looked up but I just smiled at him. Mike asked why I didn't say hi or say hey Andy say hi Trudi. I told him I didn't want to bother him and I was afraid I would get kicked out. He just laughed. This picture proves how close he was to me. I didn't take the really close ones cuz it just seemed weird so at least I can say I smiled at him.:) We spent Thursday- Saturday there. We didn't go watch any tennis on Saturday. We packed up and headed back to the airport on Saturday. I kept saying to Mike, "I wish we could stay a couple more days. I'm not ready to go home". Home is where we went though. The only tragedy was Mildred our cat got hit and was dead on the side of the road. The kids called Thursday to say they thought it was her on the side of the road. They did a check and sure enough it was her. Ashley and Jase scooped her up in a garbage bag and put her by the fence for Mike to bury when we got home. They were a little grossed out by her eye ball that was popped out. Sorry for the graphic details. It was hard to be back home but, you gotta get back to reality some time. I hope next year we can go again and stay a little longer. Just have to say I love being with my husband. To hold hands, laugh and talk together. I can honestly say he always makes me laugh. I hope there are many more years of laughter with him.

Valentines Day:)

So Valentines day is to be about love. There are lots of things that I love. Some of those things are my FAMILY and my young women. To show my love... I started the day off with the famous heart shaped pancakes with sausage. (looks gross .)

Mandy reminded me of a year when I came to the kids school and brought them a little gift. She told me how awesome that was. I figured shoot this is Ashley's last year, I can do it again. I bought them things that they love to eat and a little balloon to embarras them. Ashley was at seminary. Her seminary principal took care of embarrasing her. Mandy was called up to the attendance office. Suzanne insisted that we take a picture so here is the only picture with my kids and their gifts. (Mandy of course got Oreos. Ash chocolate covered pretzels and swedish fish. Jase oreos, Ellie hershey bars, Brook got skittles) They loved it. I gave the kids' teachers, my ladies I visit teach and my counselors shovels with candy. It said, "I Dig YOU".
My young women got M & M's and a container with sweet hearts and some popcorn.

I spent the night with my young women decorating cookies and cutting out tons of hearts to heart attack the bishop and the girls who weren't there. They had so much fun decorating and then knocking and running to the get away car.
Of course I didn't forget about my man:) He got a bunch of goodies and a yummy cafe rio homemade dinner. Lame I know but that's our life around here. Hope everyone had a "LOVEly" valentines day!

Miracles Do Exist

I know it has been well over a year since my last words have been written. I had pretty much decided that I wouldn't ever be writing in this blog again. So why the change of mind..... Great question!!! I read Misti's blog which I try to do every week and then some others. I thought what the heck I'll read my last blog. There are so many things I had forgotten about my shoulder surgery. This made me think.... Wow if I hadn't written this down, I would have forgotten many things that occured at that time. So if anything, I should blog to keep a record of life since I do a poor job in my journal. So here is my attempt to blog again:) So forgive me those who truly blog well. I will be doing this more as a journal. Sorry I know it's lame. Since Christmas and a couple of trips to St. George, life is calming back down into a routine. Ellie and Jase are playing Jr. Jazz basketball. Mandy is starting club volleyball and preparing for softball tryouts. (sorry no pictures yet) I am still the young women's president so this keeps me going too:)In the next few weeks, I'll be redoing my bathroom and my office. I'm looking forward to some building. (mostly for my office.)

So I didn't get this posted but I am almost done with my bathroom. I'll add the before pictures now and when it's decorated I'll do the finishing touches. So here goes the bright bathroom. So I want to share some things that happened with redoing the bathroom. You will see that I went with a boring tan. It makes so I don't paint for a while. The mirror needed to be moved to be able to do the trim and change the lights. As Celeste and I were pulling, the mirror broke. Not good. So in order to have it done we ran to Tooele to find a mirror. Thank goodness Home Depot had a mirror that was 3X5. We finished putting the mirror up in time. Mike still doesn't know about the breakage. The next day we built the shelves. The one closest to my sink I wanted left open for easy access but I might be changing my mind. Now I need to touch some things up and decorate. But this is close. Not easy though:)

I am ALIVE! (barely)

Well, it has been 3 weeks and 4 days since my shoulder surgery. I'm finally feeling up to working on the computer and using both hands to type this. I'm not suppose to be out of my sling, but I figured that if I have started physical therapy, what better therapy could I have than computer work. I had shoulder surgery on October 21st. I ended going to the hospital later than I was suppose to, so I ended up spending the night at the hospital. When I finally came out of it, and got to my room, it was 8 at night. When Mike told me that they ended up doing my rota tor cuff, I almost bawled. Then when I found out that I had to share a room with someone else, I finally caved and started crying. Mike was sweet and asked what was hurting. I told him nothing, I just need to cry. I'm sure he left the hospital shaking his head. My instincts where correct about sharing a room with someone else. I had a long night, cuz the lady I shared it with, had problems with her IV. Also, during the night I moved and felt really sick. I grabbed the bucket just in time and threw up and threw up. That was the only time I was glad to have a roommate. She called the nurse who helped me feel better. It was a long night to say the least. I only got 2 hours of sleep. I called Mike early and told him to get to the hospital asap. He arrived around 10:30 and helped me get dress. Not an easy thing and still isn't, but getting easier. I started physical therapy last Friday and boy am I stiff. I figured I better try keeping out of the sling so it can loosen up. I have realized how grateful I am that I have 2 hands. You have no idea what you do everyday using both hands. I am also that I have a patient husband and children who for the most part have picked up the slack. Also, a wonderful friend who has picked up my house, washed and curled my hair, and has done my calling. She has made my life better. I plan on taking pictures of the suture areas, but Celeste has my camera. Those will come later. If this story is written crazy, blame it on the drugs!

Swimming like freakn fish

Okay, not a nice title, but I took it from Ellie's swimming teacher. The last two weeks, we have lived at Deseret Peak for swimming lessons. Brooke was in the beginners class, Ellie is level 3 and Jase level 5. Jase has spent the last 2 weeks swimming laps. I am amazed he passed. He was suppose to be in level 4 but the class was full so they bumped him to level 5. He can swim good, just not as fast with some of the strokes as the others that are in his class. Ellie according to her teacher can swim like a freakn fish. She can swim quite well. When it comes to diving, she has no fear. She can even do a back flip off of the diving board. (not that it is required in swimming lessons.) Then there is Brooke. Before swimming lessons, she practiced in the shower with me shooting the water at her face. She would blow the air out and not plug her nose. She worked on it at swimming lessons and was able to go under the water without plugging her nose. When we would stay after, she would walk around the water and dive under the water. It was hard keeping track of that girl. Most of the time I would spot her behind before her face cuz she was always under the water. I enjoy swimming lessons cuz it makes me get out in the sun and get some sun. I am as tan as Mandy. She can't believe it. She thinks I am more red than tan. We will see in a week or so.

This weekend has brought another softball game. Ellie's team played in the Riverton tournament. They are one of those teams that can beat all the bad teams but fall apart against the great teams. Some of those girls are bigger than Mandy. (and have boobs) Ellie especially struggles. When her team starts getting beat her emotions get the best of her and so does the pressure. The throws are off and when she screws up the tears come. I am glad that she is so competitive but she is to the extreme. I am sure that it doesn't help that she has to change how she throws in order to play third. Her arm is meant to be a short stop or second baseman. She has to release higher in order to make the throw. Hopefully she will learn to just have fun and not stress about the game so much. I just want her to do her best.

The summer keeps moving...Tell it to slow down!

Since I last blogged, so much has happened. Ellie was baptized on June 19th. She was a little bumbed that more cousins weren't there but she did have a few come. Tanner came and Morgan Wilson, Max and Macey. She was so funny when she was baptized. We went into the dressing room after being baptized and she giggled and giggled. I couldn't figure if it was because she was embarrassed cuz I was seeing her undress or because she was so happy to be baptized. We had a little luncheon afterwards and then we went and watched Mandy finish her softball tournament. She played pretty good and grandma and grandpa Turek were impressed that it was such good quality ball. Mandy's team ended up taking 3rd place. I think she was happy with that. The team who took first had been beaten by Mandy's team in pool play. They were some big girls. The next week I spent getting ready to go to the summer games. I went back to the orthopedic surgeon and had a cortisone shot. I was hoping to be able to survive the weekend without dying. I survived but my body was exhausted. We played on Friday and Saturday. I was able to watch Ellie's first game and then I had to leave for the summer games in Cedar. It was a lot of fun. I loved spending time with those girls and ladies. We ended up in the Gold bracket and took the bronze medal. The team who took us out of championship game gave us a run for our money. We were pretty well matched and they ended up beating us in 3. By The time we were finished, we were spent. We were lucky to beat the last team to take the bronze medal. The next couple of days I had the sorest muscles. I haven't hurt that bad since college days. On Monday I woke up not feeling so hot. I just got sicker and sicker. It took me the rest of the week to recover from puking and pooping. The next weekend was the Wilson reunion and the 4th of July weekend. I decided to help me recover, it was best to stay home. So Brooke and I stayed while the others went to Cedar. I was just glad that it wasn't me who had to host the reunion this year. Celeste took Brooke on Saturday to the parade and then kept her all day. I came over to their house that night for a BBQ and fireworks. It was a nice day to have peace and quiet. The family came home Sunday night so no more peace and quiet. They came home cuz Jase has been taking tennis lessons and the kids started swimming lessons. We have spent the week at the pool. Brooke has no fear which is good and bad. Jase is in level 5 so he spends it swimming laps. Ellie is just content to do whatever. Just don't get her giggling. I told Mike today that the next 5 weekends would be spent at the softball fields in various parts of Salt Lake and Davis and Provo county. He thinks that is crazy I say it is a lot of nervousness that this mom has to go through. So the summer keeps moving and it is not slowing down. Before I know it, school will be back in session.

The Last 5 weeks

Where has the time gone. I swear it hasn't been 5 weeks since I last blogged. Okay, maybe it has. Life has been crazy with preparing for field day. I am always glad when that is over with. With the end of school comes performances and field trips and of course softball games, and making up rained out softball games. Then before I know it the kids are saying goodbye to their teachers. We also spent the last week and a half taking Ashley to the school at 5:30 in the morning to do her student driving. She gets her licence tomorrow so it is now not safe to be outside. When you hear the loud music coming down the street, run in the house. Then June begins and it is Brooke's birthday and then Ashley's birthday and then tomorrow is Ellie's birthday. This really makes me crazy. It's hard to find out what they want and then taking the time to find it is a difficult task. For Brooke's birthday, I spent the day in Salt lake tracking down her gift and then ended up buying something different and cheaper. She got a battery operated motor scooter. She spent all evening at Celeste's house riding a motorized 4 wheeler on Memorial day, so I thought this was the perfect gift. It was close enough. Ashley didn't know for sure what she wanted. She did want a ctr ring and I got her that but she didn't know what else she wanted. So cash it was. She was away to youth conference on her birthday so I decided to send her some flowers and have a cake waiting when she arrived home. I don't think she liked them as much as I thought she would. Now Ellie wants a bat. I struggled trying to figure out what kind of bat she needed. So she won't get it on her birthday. Maybe I'll just have to take her clothes shopping. With birthdays also came a little puppy. Ashley begged that's all she wanted. So we have a new black lab added to our family. His name is Beau or BO or BoGus. He is confused at what is name really is. Wish me luck with this new adventure. Always after birthdays comes all stars. Ellie's team took 2nd this year and Ellie made the all- star team. She most likely will play third. She would rather play 2nd but you play where you are told. She has a strong arm, but not the strongest on the team. But she is accurate. The 2 girls who can throw harder than her don't have the accuracy. What makes me sad is I will miss her first tournament. I will be in Cedar playing at the summer games. Mandy also made the all-star team and plays in her first tournament this Friday and Saturday. She might have to miss a game if they play during Ellie's baptism. So our summers will be softball tournaments, scout camps, and girls camp and birthdays. At least it won't be occupied with volleyball except with Ashley. I turned in my resignation that I needed some time off to be with my family. So now you can understand my lack of blogging.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Today is mother's day! For me it is wonderful. I got breakfast in bed courtesy of Mike and Ellie. Ellie was more giggles than anything else. Ashley had to speak today and it had to be on her mother. She did a good job and she was willing to speak is what made me the most pleased. Jase, Ellie, and Brooke sang a lovely mother's day song too. Now, I get to blog while dinner is being fixed for me. What more could I ask for. Also, yesterday, I took my girls to Sparkle Tips and toes or something like that. Ashley and I got a manicure and Ellie and Brooke got sparkly fingernails and Mandy had her toes painted with poke dots put on. It was fun to spend some girly time with my girls. It was a first for me. I have never paid to have someone do my nails. Hopefully they thought it was fun too! But this blog is not meant to be about me but about my mother. I know that I won't make it through without crying so the positive thing is at least you can't see me bawl. Growing up we didn't have a lot of money and my parents made life good by being as I call it "tight wads." My mom made me many outfits and dresses growing up. She is a great seamstress. Too bad I didn't learn this from her. Hopefully she can pass this on to my girls. I loved that my mom was a stay at home mom. It was fun to come home for lunch and to be able to bring my friends with me. I especially loved when I had a game. I would come home and she would have potatoes and gravy or spaghetti. Wanting me to eat the best on game day. She probably never thought I appreciated it but I always thought that was a wonderful thing that she did and I have never forgotten . I also loved coming home to fresh hot bread or goodies. That is something I like to do for my kids. I know it wasn't easy raising 8 kids and having a husband who was the bishop or stake president. But she taught me by her example to not complain and gripe when your spouse is serving the Lord. She taught me to be a hard worker. She never sat idol. She was always busy. She still is. She makes me laugh when she comes to my house. She feels she needs to do jobs at my house. When I had Jase she came and washed all my windows. Scraping all the paint that was left on when they built my house. I know by her example that, that is the reason I keep busy cuz that's what I saw growing up. She's always a positive person and I can tell that people who have worked with her in the temple know she is so positive and fun to be around. I love having girls weekends with her. Probably the funniest was when we went to Vegas to find Tiffani a ring. The man in the jewelry store told us that he was once married to a "mormon" girl. My mom couldn't believe that a mormon girl would get divorced. That one will never be forgotten. I also loved when we stayed at Cheri's friends house and she and I were sharing a bed. I loved staying up all night with her laughing and talking til late into the night. I am glad she is my friend and I love calling and talking to her. There are so many more things to share but I can save them for another mother's day! I love her and I am glad that I was sent to her. What better example could I have. Happy mother's day to my mom, sisters and friends.

I know it is not easy being a mom but I hope that some day my kids love me as much as I love my mom! (tears)

IT IS DONE!!!!!

So there are many of you who have anticipated this post so..... here it IS. My friend Celeste and I decided to take on a huge challenge. We decided to build me an entertainment center. Many are wondering why did I need one and why not go buy a new one. Well, I will answer all of those questions. I received an entertainment center for my 18th birthday. I have held on to that entertainment center until 2 weeks ago. When Celeste and I carried it out to the road for the garbage man to carry it away. (this was a challenge also) It had been moved many times and with each time, it became wobblier and wobblier. When my basement flooded months ago, we decided it was time. The problem was the entertainment centers I liked would not fit coming down into my basement and they were between 1500 and 2000 dollars. So the solution was to build it and bring it down into pieces and assemble it in my basement. (yes this means it will stay forever) We began by sitting at Celeste's table and sketching out the plans. Knowing things I wanted and the measurements, we then decided on how much wood we needed. We went to Home Depot and left the kids at home. (thank goodness cuz it took a lot longer than we had planned.) We decided that we would have the wood cut down so we didn't need to make as many cuts and it is a lot easier to cut wood when they are smaller pieces. We got a grumpy, sweaty, fat man who did us the honor of cutting our wood down. I tried to help him lift the wood up and he told me to just stand back. It is funny to laugh at now but it wasn't at the time. We found everything that we needed and then began the process of loading it in my van. I wish we would have gotten a picture of it but needless to say we were full. We waited for a couple of weeks before we began. It was still cold the first day we started. I remember it took a long time to warm up after the day was over. (shower and soup didn't help.) Thank goodness it did warm up during the couple of weeks of building. It made it possible for Brooke and Camden to play outside too. Those 2 kept us busy themselves but considering they are 3 they did pretty good. Brooke liked to bug Camden which would make Camden mad and then someone would be tattling. We started building the 2 book shelves first. They went fairly quick and by the weekend, we had them moved into the storage room to be painted. (This was a bad idea cuz there isn't much light in there.) I had to do a little sanding and fixing of things. Then, we began building the big beast. We first built the bottom part. This was much like the book shelves but much larger. Then we built the top piece. We used a machine that Celeste had. We had never used it before but it cuts little slits that you put a little disc into it and you cut another slit in the other piece of wood and they slide in together. After playing around with it one afternoon, we decided we were ready to give it a shot. It worked beautifully. Now was the fun part. We took the two pieces downstairs. They were 10 times heavier and much more awkward. I ended up bruising Celeste. We finally got them down and glued the discs in and nailed the back on and it was ready to putty and paint. That weekend I painted. Then it was ready to be polyurethane. I kind of thought all were the same and failed to read all the instructions(Warning to all who might build and use polyurethane READ THE LABEL! ) I began using the polyurethane and I got a phone call. I went to wash my hands and realized my 30 dollar purchase was oil based. I thought oh well that just means I have to clean up differently. So I continued like an idiot. When I got to my doors I was talking to Celeste on the phone and I told her that it looked like I had taken a brush with water and placed it on the door. She thought after another coat it would be fine. So I got everything Polyurethane. With the book cases I worked harder at brushing out the oil which meant it took me longer. When Celeste arrived at my house on Monday, she looked at everything and knew there was a problem. Because I had never used it, I thought I was just a sucky painter. She read the can and it said do not use on paint. My heart sunk! That meant it had to be peeled off because that is what it was starting to do on the bigger piece. So a kind friend began spending days helping peel all of it off. Some came off easily and most we used a razor to get off. By the end of the week it was scraped as good as I was wanting it to be and painted and polyurethane. I had bought a satin on accident and instead of returning it I just bought the kind that I needed. I accidentally grabbed the satin kind and didn't realize that I was using it til the can was empty. So then I had to start over with the glossy. Then it was ready to be moved and decorated. New problem.... When we got the TV and tried to hook it up to the satellite, it wouldn't work. We tried to see if Mike could fix it but he couldn't. He called the satellite company and they told him that if he could see the screen that everything was hooked up right. So that meant we had to have a repair man come out and see what was wrong which meant we had to wait until Monday. When the repair man came, he discovered it wasn't hooked up right. After he left we hooked up everything including a "cheap" home theatre system. We spent hours trying to hook everything up. We finally moved it back. Then the next day we put the lights on it ( something my kids like to trick their friends on how they snap their fingers to turn it on.) and we also put the doors on. The next day we decorated it. It is finally done. (until I have to pull the oil base off of the book shelves.) Thanks to a wonderful friend who never gave up and gave me plenty of things to laugh and cry about, it is Done and I have a beautiful entertainment center.