The grass is always greener on the other side...right? I have been seriously frustrated recently with being so busy, having the house to take care of, not having central air, etc. Today, when I was trying to think about what to blog, I found this post...written the first week that I had this blog.
In all of that, we finished one thing. Kinda. We have a basketball hoop now. Stupid.
Showing posts with label *Being a Homeowner*. Show all posts
Showing posts with label *Being a Homeowner*. Show all posts
Coffee = Not Being A Hoarder
I think my biggest joy ever about having Netflix is the tv episodes. I have certain shows that I'm drawn to that we do not get on our television, mainly because I refuse to pay $30+ for cable or dish or whatever. So, there are some TLC, ABC Family, A&E kinda shows that I have caught when at a hotel for a conference in the past that I now have access to via Netflix. I'm really not picky. Old shows work perfectly fine. They are new to me.
Anyways, two such shows are "Clean House" and "Hoarders"....I love love LOVE them. And they leave me feeling inspired.
So, the other night was like any other night this week. Worked our butts off all day, then collapsed into the recliners around 10 PM and turned into tv zombies. Well, on this particular night, I drank a cup of coffee. Then, Jose headed to bed, leaving me to watch Clean House alone.
At least, until I hit pause. And began to clean. And kept cleaning. It was like midnight and I stayed up until about 1:30 or 2 AM. The crazy part is that it didn't even seem that dirty. I did two loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen, the dining room and the living room. I went through some of our accumulating piles that have grown since we have been doing so much work outside.
Note to self: Do not drink coffee then watch cleaning and organizing tv shows.
Actually, let's revise that:
Note to self: Do NOT drink coffee after 6 PM. Ever.
Anyways, two such shows are "Clean House" and "Hoarders"....I love love LOVE them. And they leave me feeling inspired.
So, the other night was like any other night this week. Worked our butts off all day, then collapsed into the recliners around 10 PM and turned into tv zombies. Well, on this particular night, I drank a cup of coffee. Then, Jose headed to bed, leaving me to watch Clean House alone.
At least, until I hit pause. And began to clean. And kept cleaning. It was like midnight and I stayed up until about 1:30 or 2 AM. The crazy part is that it didn't even seem that dirty. I did two loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen, the dining room and the living room. I went through some of our accumulating piles that have grown since we have been doing so much work outside.
Note to self: Do not drink coffee then watch cleaning and organizing tv shows.
Actually, let's revise that:
Note to self: Do NOT drink coffee after 6 PM. Ever.
Here's My Reason For Being Absent.
This, my dear friends, is why I have been MIA for a week.
It all started with pulling weeds. Actually, it started with painting the house. I helped Jose as much as possible, but I'm afraid of ladders, so that help was short lived. So, while he spent the week priming the house, I decided to be productive as well. So, I began to pull weeds. And trim the bushes. Then, I began to cut down some bushes that were ugly and out of control.
It should be noted that since moving in in 2007, we have done little to nothing in regards to landscaping. We just had more projects with higher priority. I think that one time, maybe two years ago, I pulled weeds, but just enough to make it presentable. Nothing more.
So, the pulling weeds and trimming took over two nights (Monday and Tuesday) of last week. There was something, I think it may have been parsley, growing ridiculously in the bed. The root system of it was chaos. And trimming the back two bushes was a lot trickier than you'd think...because they are covered in thorns. I had to pull about a dozen thorns from my hands, and that was with gloves on.
The next night (Wednesday) was consumed by digging out unwanted trees and bushes along the side. One of my bff's, Jamie, came over to help and together we were able to remove two bushes that I had cut down to nubs and about four trees that were growing along the foundation. The stupid trees were hidden by untrimmed bushes for the past few years and were about thigh high. So, it was definately an all-night job.
Thursday is my tv night, so I didn't dedicate much time to the yard, but Friday night, I began to see my final plan in my head. However, we had other plans and didn't end up working. The threat of rain and sprinkles coming down contributed to that as well, so on Saturday, Jose and I spent the entire day outside working while my mom had the kids.
I dug out an entire bush to transplant. For about three hours, I dug a hole and carefully dug around the bush as to not damage its roots. Finally, with some man help, we were able to move the bush....two feet away to its new home. My mom laughed at me, but I wanted to be able to have the flower bed line up with the side of the house and the bush was too far over. So, we made it circle around and put it in an empty spot. I also finished up the area, spread the dirt out, pulled the rest of the stray weeds, and removed the rocks that were there.
Yesterday, we did nothing in the yard. It rained all day and we just needed a break. And I took a super long nap, which was amazing.
So, today, we took a trip to Lowes. Bought 63 little bricks (about 50 cents each), 3 bags of mulch (about $4) , 2 bags of planting soil ($2.50), and 4 containers of flowers ($1 each). And ta-da! Lined the area, mulched the area, planted the flowers (and put some in planters by the door), and done. Oh yea, and I planted grass seeds on the left where the flower bed used to be, but where we want grass to grow. And threw our chairs in front, for now.
And, Jose's got the house all primered and will be painting soon. I do believe that maybe, just maybe, we will be done with these large projects (painting the house, replacing the doors, and the front landscaping) by the end of May. That would freakin' rock! Stay tuned!
Super Frustrated
...I just need to keep repeating..."it could be worse...it could be worse...it could be worse"...right?
This last week has flown by, and while much has gotten done, sometimes, I wonder if it was more like the whole one step forward and two steps back kinda thing. It's been hard. So hard that today, I was a total grump and made everyone in my house miserable until they allowed me to take a five hour nap. Yes, seriously. I was in such a foul mood that I didn't even eat lunch. I hate feeling like that.
I'm just reaching the point where I'm not winning mom of the year awards, wife of the year awards, homeowner of the year awards, etc. You get the point. Honestly, I may be closer to the homeowner award than the wife or mom ones.
I'm in a mood to complain...complain about my husband, about our house, about the rain, about the projects, and the kids, and finances, etc. So, I'm going to log off now. It's late anyways.
I promise that sometime this week I will try to post something not so gloomy...if we don't end up outside until 11 PM each night this week, that is. Uh...
This last week has flown by, and while much has gotten done, sometimes, I wonder if it was more like the whole one step forward and two steps back kinda thing. It's been hard. So hard that today, I was a total grump and made everyone in my house miserable until they allowed me to take a five hour nap. Yes, seriously. I was in such a foul mood that I didn't even eat lunch. I hate feeling like that.
I'm just reaching the point where I'm not winning mom of the year awards, wife of the year awards, homeowner of the year awards, etc. You get the point. Honestly, I may be closer to the homeowner award than the wife or mom ones.
I'm in a mood to complain...complain about my husband, about our house, about the rain, about the projects, and the kids, and finances, etc. So, I'm going to log off now. It's late anyways.
I promise that sometime this week I will try to post something not so gloomy...if we don't end up outside until 11 PM each night this week, that is. Uh...
Holy Crapola Batman....
...there aren't enough hours in the day!
And, I think I have allergies. Which is kicking my butt this spring season. For the last two weeks, I have had at least 5 days of migraines, and the one this morning was a whopper of a headache, leading me to gag on my coffee. However, I have been able to make it go away, once I realized that allergy medicine worked miracles.
And, I have taken up a few extra hours a week doing marketing on the FWFC website. Look for another post soon asking your opinion. The page has changed drastically since the first post asking for your thoughts. There's some more pages I need to create, but overall, it's going well...I think.
And, we havedived dove into house projects. More and more and more of them. It's quite insane actually, but it makes me so happy to see the progress. The garage is painted completely, the back side of the house is mostly painted (except the trim, which is due to my fear of ladders...don't ask.). The side of the house is primed halfway. We have installed a new front door and a screen door, and have two more screen doors waiting to be put in. I have painted the back door and the door to the roof, and put a first coat on the side door. I am also partially through some landscaping stuff. I just pray that the rain stays away. Plus, I need to do a ton of caulking.
And, we have some upcoming events this summer. We are hoping to finish painting the house during Jose's vacation week this month. And, we are having a yard sale this month too. It's also our anniversary weekend at the end of May. Then, we have some plans to make for July with Jose's dad getting married in Wisconsin and a work conference and a possible weekend vacation.
And, our house is a disaster on the inside. If it does rain in the next few days, I will be making some adjustments to our plans and we will spend an evening doing some deep cleaning. The laundry pile is large enough to consume me and no one will ever find the remains. There is a mound of stuff on the landing that needs to find a home. My yard sale pile is overflowing in the kitchen. The foyer looks like a demolition zone from all the work being done, with dirt and sawdust. The basement...oh, don't let me even think of the basement. I may cry.
So. What have you been up to?
And, I think I have allergies. Which is kicking my butt this spring season. For the last two weeks, I have had at least 5 days of migraines, and the one this morning was a whopper of a headache, leading me to gag on my coffee. However, I have been able to make it go away, once I realized that allergy medicine worked miracles.
And, I have taken up a few extra hours a week doing marketing on the FWFC website. Look for another post soon asking your opinion. The page has changed drastically since the first post asking for your thoughts. There's some more pages I need to create, but overall, it's going well...I think.
And, we have
And, we have some upcoming events this summer. We are hoping to finish painting the house during Jose's vacation week this month. And, we are having a yard sale this month too. It's also our anniversary weekend at the end of May. Then, we have some plans to make for July with Jose's dad getting married in Wisconsin and a work conference and a possible weekend vacation.
And, our house is a disaster on the inside. If it does rain in the next few days, I will be making some adjustments to our plans and we will spend an evening doing some deep cleaning. The laundry pile is large enough to consume me and no one will ever find the remains. There is a mound of stuff on the landing that needs to find a home. My yard sale pile is overflowing in the kitchen. The foyer looks like a demolition zone from all the work being done, with dirt and sawdust. The basement...oh, don't let me even think of the basement. I may cry.
So. What have you been up to?
Where's Carla?
Sorry for the lack of posts, but my life has been consumed by deck planning, house painting, migrane fighting, good food eating, church membership obtaining, three job working, scrapbook organizing, garage saleing, movie watching, lots of water drinking, family entertaining, and just busy keeping.
I think some of it is really just trying to stay busy and not think...not that it works. There's something that happens when you are painting a garage door that makes your body go on auto pilot and your brain keeps racing.
However, we really have been busy. We will go into debt with house projects, I'm sure. But, it will be worth it (and we will be able to pay them off quickly) when we have gutters that no longer leak, a tan house instead of a rusty blue one, a beautiful deck, new doors, and a yard that makes sense and is "organized".
I believe half of our time this weekend was spent at Menards. They surely made a mistake when they gave me a credit card there. Surely. (Lowe's made the same mistake!)
And I have every intention of spending all my freetime (in the daylight) in the yard, doing hard manual labor. It's going to be my weight loss plan for the summer. I intend to be sunkissed by the time I'm done as well. So, if you know where I live and drive by, feel free to stop by, but only if you are willing to help! ;)
When it's not feasible to work in the yard, we will be cleaning and finishing up indoor projects. Like mudding the basement walls, Jose will be finishing the under-the-stair shelves in the basement (they are sooo cool!), possibly changing up Isa's mural, building shelving in our closet, remodeling the full size bath upstairs, creating something useful in Teo's closet, painting the play room in the basement, stripping and staining the living room trim and (eventually) painting the living room, etc.
It will never end.......
Oh, and I'm still working and painting and raising kids.
I think some of it is really just trying to stay busy and not think...not that it works. There's something that happens when you are painting a garage door that makes your body go on auto pilot and your brain keeps racing.
However, we really have been busy. We will go into debt with house projects, I'm sure. But, it will be worth it (and we will be able to pay them off quickly) when we have gutters that no longer leak, a tan house instead of a rusty blue one, a beautiful deck, new doors, and a yard that makes sense and is "organized".
I believe half of our time this weekend was spent at Menards. They surely made a mistake when they gave me a credit card there. Surely. (Lowe's made the same mistake!)
And I have every intention of spending all my freetime (in the daylight) in the yard, doing hard manual labor. It's going to be my weight loss plan for the summer. I intend to be sunkissed by the time I'm done as well. So, if you know where I live and drive by, feel free to stop by, but only if you are willing to help! ;)
When it's not feasible to work in the yard, we will be cleaning and finishing up indoor projects. Like mudding the basement walls, Jose will be finishing the under-the-stair shelves in the basement (they are sooo cool!), possibly changing up Isa's mural, building shelving in our closet, remodeling the full size bath upstairs, creating something useful in Teo's closet, painting the play room in the basement, stripping and staining the living room trim and (eventually) painting the living room, etc.
It will never end.......
Oh, and I'm still working and painting and raising kids.
Ant
Since she was little, Isa has been super afraid, often unnecessarily, of bugs. Any and all bugs would cause her into a fit of screams and panic. I remember once, a couple years ago, when the army of ants began (as it does every spring in our house), she was sitting on the toilet in the bathroom shortly after starting to use the toilet instead of the potty chair. We gave her the independence to "do it herself" for the most part, so while she was alone in the bathroom, we were doing other things in nearby rooms. Screams erupted. Panicked, terrified screams. And we rushed in to see what happened, assuming she fell into the bowl of the toilet or that she had somehow hurt herself. Instead, she was sitting, bare bottomed, on the toilet seat, hysterical about the ant crawling across the floor.
Teo, however, is the complete opposite. Bugs are things of interest. He loves to get nose to nose with them, down on his hands and knees, checking them out. Watching them. Over the weekend, we learned of a talent he has. As I watched him, giggling with glee, he crawled up to one of those pesky ants and *swoop* in an instant, pinched it between his fingers. I told him to throw it away and he did. Then, he got down on the floor and did it again. And again. He only became distressed once all the ants on the floor were squished in the trash and he spotted one on the ceiling. And the distress came from not being able to catch it.
From that point forward, we have encouraged him to catch and throw away all the ants (why not? It's a free ant-killing service) and he has joyfully obliged.
Then, on Monday morning, Isa was recalling the awesome way that Teo quickly caught the ants as she spotted one on the wall. Then, before I could respond, *swoop* Isa, my darling daughter who screamed like someone was cutting off her digits one by one when seeing a bug, had an ant pinched in her fingers. She threw it into the trash and a huge smile hijacked her face.
Now, think we can put them to work with the flies start to impose?
Teo, however, is the complete opposite. Bugs are things of interest. He loves to get nose to nose with them, down on his hands and knees, checking them out. Watching them. Over the weekend, we learned of a talent he has. As I watched him, giggling with glee, he crawled up to one of those pesky ants and *swoop* in an instant, pinched it between his fingers. I told him to throw it away and he did. Then, he got down on the floor and did it again. And again. He only became distressed once all the ants on the floor were squished in the trash and he spotted one on the ceiling. And the distress came from not being able to catch it.
From that point forward, we have encouraged him to catch and throw away all the ants (why not? It's a free ant-killing service) and he has joyfully obliged.
Then, on Monday morning, Isa was recalling the awesome way that Teo quickly caught the ants as she spotted one on the wall. Then, before I could respond, *swoop* Isa, my darling daughter who screamed like someone was cutting off her digits one by one when seeing a bug, had an ant pinched in her fingers. She threw it into the trash and a huge smile hijacked her face.
Now, think we can put them to work with the flies start to impose?
Accomplishment Friday?
Today, I accomplished:
- Making changes and updates to our budget
- Drinking 2 cups of coffee
- Watching 2 movies (both rather good: A Kind of Funny Story and The Devil Wears Prada)
- Got our cell phone bill reduced about $25/mo by removing some "extra" charges and got our internet bill reduced about $10/mo by signing a new contract for a faster internet since our "deal" was so old
- Finished a mural I have been working on forever and ever (or so it seems...photos can be seen here)
- Cleaning the upstairs
- Eating any real food
- Doing laundry
- Clearing off the landing of the stairs
- Taking garage sale stuff to the basement
- Fixing a friends' mug
- Working on any additional paintings
Our Weekend To Done (Or Almost Done) List.
So, on Friday, I posted my weekend to do list. I didn't do it all, but I did do a lot more than I thought I would in other projects, so here's the final tally, with photos!
- Order photos from Snapfish. YUP.
- Organize my craft room. YUP. Jose even cut, painted, and hung a shelf for me. And one of my besties helped me put my things on it.
I love them! Sometimes, my husband freakin' rocks! Okay, he freaking rocks all the time...I guess. ;)
- Finish mural. Not done.
- Pay bills. YUP, DONE.
- Ask my husband to please go through his tote of tools and project stuff and put them somewhere where they will belong. Basically done.
- Do five hours or so of website work for the Fort Wayne Fatherhood Coalition. Not done.
- Ask my husband to hang all the things that I keep begging asking him to hang up, including photo frames, wall decor, etc. Half done. He also did a side project of building shelves for our pantry.
One of the many things Jose hung up this weekend. :) When I have time, I'm so excited
because I'm going to sew a handful of aprons (see the hang up spot on the left?) and do some
lettering on the wall. Stay tuned!
The coolest pantry shelves in the world...heck of a lot better than before...remember this?
Oh, and while we were renovating our pantry, I found a light fixture...hey there, lil' guy! ;)
Seriously, I never knew it was there. Oh, and see that dimmer switch on the side, yea...that's for
lights that are in the living room in an inset shelf thing. Don't ask...
- Finish putting the play room in the basement together (where it will remain clean and organized - HAHA! until we paint it). Not done.
- Go grocery shopping. YUP. We went grocery shopping, wii game shopping, decor shopping, and more.
- Finish up my wedding scrapbook. (This one is just wishful thinking, but it would be nice!) Yea...nope. I will be doing 12 hours of scrapbooking next Saturday, so it's okay...I'm okay with that.
- Plant seeds for our garden in containers until they grow a few inches. YUP, DONE.
Watermelons, khlorobi, peppers, cucumbers, onions, pumpkins, and more! Yum! Can't wait for them to grow...and to eat them!
- Trim the tree by the entrance. Remove mulch and plant grass. Half done. Did the trimming, decided against planting today since it was so windy. I don't really want a driveway full of grass seed.
- Make curtains for the living room, dining room, the landing, our bedroom closet, and the craft room. Also make pillow covers for the living room and the craft room. Half done. Did all the curtains except the craft room. And I only made one pillow cover, but have everything to do the rest. Hopefully soon...
This is the photo on the package. We got four packs.
Then Jamie and I tore them apart. And we made curtains for six window
with enough left over to cover four pillows.
- Purge. We gathered up quite a pile (again) for the garage sale. It's just waiting to go to the garage until we're done. This is a never done task.
- Make a coffee cake. I even got a little more domestic. Granted, it's from a box, but ya know. Not too shabby....for me...
I have already written my to do list for this week....let's see how it goes. I have 11 more rooms/spaces to clean through and purge before Easter. There's only 14 days until then. Hmm....feel the crunch? I do.
My Weekend To Do List:
Okay. I'm going to post my weekend to do list. Right. Here. And instead of writing new posts throughout the weekend, I'm going to update this one. So stay tuned...
Update #1: End of Friday Night...Blue Font
Update #2: Midday Saturday...Purple Font
Update #3: End of Saturday Night...Now, my favorite color...Red.
Update #1: End of Friday Night...Blue Font
Update #2: Midday Saturday...Purple Font
Update #3: End of Saturday Night...Now, my favorite color...Red.
- Order photos from Snapfish for 11% off and free shipping using the code "11FREESHIP" (Offer ends Sunday). This will also be done. Tonight. After I pay bills. Ha! So, after uploading a ton of pics last night and still not being around the price range that I "allowed" myself, I resumed uploading more this morning. Then the internet failed and I had to do some crappy computer crap and upload the rest. However, about $30 later and with over 300 photos on their way in the next week or two, we're all set. DONE.
- Organize my craft room. I brought every piece of crap that was in the room and not where it needed to be into the dining room. Now, to give the crap a home. My craft room is Jose's dump crap room, so it is a big project. I spent a good chunk of the afternoon going through the
pilemoundginormous mountain of stuff that came from the craft room and was sitting on the dining room table. I believe there are about five boxes/bags for the yard sale and I filled up a garbage bag. There is still stuff on the table, but it's basically my paint supplies and my scrapbook stuff, and I just need to put it in the craft room. There's also one box that is a ton of misc. stuff that I just kept tossing in there as I went along. I need to go through it still too. Yea. Still tackling this. The kids "helping" me isn't helping. And Jose's going to put a shelf in above the window for some more space to put things, which should help. The shelf is up and my awesome friend, Jamie, helped me put books and some baskets and this and that up. We also went through my stash of photo frames that I can't bear to part with and put in some pics and put them on the shelf. It's pretty awesome. DONE. - Finish mural. Seriously. It's for my neighbor and I have worked on it here and there for over a month. Still haven't touched this, but it's a project for after the kids go to bed.
- Pay bills. Again. I hate bills, but I know that if I don't do it soon, people are going to knock on my door. Done. And I would have balanced my checkbook too, except my husband refuses to turn the light on because he's watching a movie. I balanced my checkbooks this morning and now this is DONE. Officially DONE.
Threaten Jose with bodily harmAsk my husband to please go through his tote of tools and project stuff and put them somewhere where they will belong. There is a growing pile that was shoved in my craft room that has got to go. I can't wait for him to have the garage all to himself (after the garage sale) for his tools and stuff. Jose went through his entire tote of stuff. Actually, it began as a tote. We bought it so that there was one place for all his things, tool and project related, to go in the house and out of the way, out of the hands of little people, out of sight, etc. The tote turned into a mountain and today, when he got home, he went through it. I was so proud, because he even grabbed his sorter box thing that Isa bought him for Christmas and I watched him sort out washers, nuts, bolts, a million different screws, etc. Still need to find a home for Jose's tote, but once we do, it'll be done.- Do five hours or so of website work for the Fort Wayne Fatherhood Coalition. Because then, my hours will officially be all equaled out how they should be. Still haven't touched this one either.
Beg and pleadAsk my husband to hang all the things that I keepbeggingasking him to hang up, including photo frames, wall decor, etc. There is a pile of "hang up" things that will be done tomorrow. Or else. ;) Jose began this project this morning, but we've gotten into a rather large fight today, so he quit in anger. The pile has shrunk though. There are still a couple things in the pile, but he spend the afternoon making wood shelves for our pantry (and we took out the metal ones) and he put my shelf in the craftroom.- Finish putting the play room in the basement together (where it will remain clean and organized - HAHA! until we paint it). Maybe after lunch...Not even close...
- Go grocery shopping. A large chunk of our evening was dedicated to this. Well, kinda. It ended up being a nice dinner, followed by a trip to McVans (a video game place) where we have a credit of over $100 because we traded in all our old game systems. We didn't see any games we wanted, so we asked about DJ Hero for the wii. Turns out one of the other stores had a turntable, so we trekked across town and ended up getting the turntable, DJ Hero, and DJ Hero 2. We also got Mario Party 8. And we still have money on the credit. We then went to Target to buy diapers. Two boxes of Huggies for $30 (saved $11 in coupons). And I love that Target has a Starbucks. We then went to Meijer, where we sipped on our drinks as we shopped. Ended up spending $98 on a full cart of groceries (saved $69), which isn't bad considering that we haven't bought coupons since February and are steering away from doing hardcore couponing. Granted, we still used coupons that we had and printables, but still. I felt like it was success and it really reinforced my choice to shop sales and continue to stock up while minimizing the insanity of coupons in my life. DONE.
- Finish up my wedding scrapbook. (This one is just wishful thinking, but it would be nice!) Yea...nope. I have looked at the scrapbook stuff though (as I put them away).
- Plant seeds for veggies in dixie cups so that in a few weeks, I can plant a real life garden. Maybe. This afternoon, the neighbor girl was hanging around, begging to help me do something...so once Isa and Teo woke from their naps, we went outside to plant. We didn't use dixie cups because we found an inexpensive planter box thingie for starting plants. Three of 'em, actually. Which worked well. And now, I have to remember to not kill them. DONE.
- Trim the tree by the entrance. Remove mulch and plant grass. This project stemmed from one of the things in the hang up pile for Jose. My mom bought us these two lil' tree hugger things to hang on a tree, so we hung them. Then I felt the need to trim the tree. Then, when Jose went to Lowe's, we just decided it would make sense to buy grass since we've been talking about removing the mulch and planting grass there for the past two years or so. Tomorrow, the mulch is going to go and the grass will be planted...
- Make curtains for the living room, dining room, the landing, our bedroom closet, and the craft room. Also make pillow covers for the living room and the craft room. As we continued to work on things, Jose kept bugging me about curtains, so Jamie and I went to Walmart before dinner. (Have I mentioned that I love that girl?!) The fabric there sucked, so we ended up finding cheap curtains, which we have cut and changed for what we wanted. They only had three packs, so tomorrow, we need to buy one more at a different Walmart. The living room is done and the dining room is waiting for its extra pack. The scraps from the packs and our alterations will be used for the curtains on the landing and the pillow covers for the living room. Tonight at Walmart, we also ended up buying two twin size sheets for $2 each (SCORE!), which are now our new closet "door". Just a couple of trimming things and they are ready to go!
Six Chapters - Friday through Monday
Chapter 1: Land of the Living
Yes, yes, I am still alive! And, in all honesty, I'm doing well. We have seemingly gotten over the last bout of illness [knock on wood] with the exception of a couple coughs here and there. My head is much clearer, my throat is no longer on fire, my nose is no longer raw. The worst part, at this moment, may be my chapped lips. And I can deal with that just fine.
Chapter 2: April Fools
Did anyone have any fun pranks on Friday? I didn't really try hard, but I did "borrow" a photo from a preggo friend of her postitive tests and I (1) posted it on Facebook and (2) sent it to the hubs. Within moments, my facebook notifications exploded, as did my phone with texts from friends. I got chewed out by a couple for posting on facebook without telling them, and my husband's reaction was quite calm. Haha. He did call me a jerk once I shared the Aprils Fool part! However, I am officially not pregnant. At all. Praise God! As much as I love little ones, I am fairly certain that I would end up in a padded room. My sister even called me on Friday to ask if I was preggo, and when I said no, she said "Thank God"...lol.
Chapter 3: Mural Finally
Yes, yes, I am still alive! And, in all honesty, I'm doing well. We have seemingly gotten over the last bout of illness [knock on wood] with the exception of a couple coughs here and there. My head is much clearer, my throat is no longer on fire, my nose is no longer raw. The worst part, at this moment, may be my chapped lips. And I can deal with that just fine.
Chapter 2: April Fools
Did anyone have any fun pranks on Friday? I didn't really try hard, but I did "borrow" a photo from a preggo friend of her postitive tests and I (1) posted it on Facebook and (2) sent it to the hubs. Within moments, my facebook notifications exploded, as did my phone with texts from friends. I got chewed out by a couple for posting on facebook without telling them, and my husband's reaction was quite calm. Haha. He did call me a jerk once I shared the Aprils Fool part! However, I am officially not pregnant. At all. Praise God! As much as I love little ones, I am fairly certain that I would end up in a padded room. My sister even called me on Friday to ask if I was preggo, and when I said no, she said "Thank God"...lol.
Chapter 3: Mural Finally
While having April Fools fun, I also hung out with a good friend and her kiddos. We spend the day at her mom's house where I was hired to paint a mural on a cabinet that she had gotten. The cabinet was handmade by someone she knew, so what better than to have a painting added on, right? It was a paying job, which felt good. And she loved it, which made it even better. She sent me some photos of landscapes that she liked, so I combined some of the elements to create this:
Chapter 4: Weekend Madness
After finishing the mural, we took the kids to my mom who offered to watch them both from Friday night until Sunday afternoon! Whooo hoo! And, boy, did we have plans for the weekend. Friday night, we continued with our Lent project of "giving up" material possessions. We went into the playroom in the basement and piece by piece, decided if we were going to (1) keep, (2) garage sale, or (3) trash each item. I believe that by the time we were done, we had over 15 plastic grocery bags of stuff for the garage sale and three trash cans full of trash. Don't worry, there is still more than enough stuff in there for the kids to be entertained for a long long time. When we had the room entirely empty, we called it quits for the night and watched a movie.
On Saturday, we woke up fairly early, had a quick breakfast (I love that the hubs cooks) and got to work. Jose headed to Lowe's and bought a ton of lumber while I began to do some deep deep cleaning. He came home and built a shelf in the pantry for the canned food (the plastic shelves we had were sagging) while I kept cleaning.
Then, we removed the chairs from our living room (one went to our bedroom, one went to the garage sale) and threw the rug to the basement before going out for a relaxing lunch. We felt that we deserved a little treat, so Flat Top it was. Then, we went to buy a rug. Our goal was a cheap one from Big Lots. Instead, we spent about twice what I hoped for (my goal was less than $75), but still got a great bargain. We ended up getting a rug at Menards, that was on sale. They only had the display left and when the employee took it off display, the corner got snagged and became unraveled about a half inch. We ended up getting it for $120 instead of the price listed of$150, so I decided to just do it. And I'm glad we did. I love love love it! After adding the two chairs that we had in our basement (that we got a year or so ago from a yard sale for $10 each!), our living room has become new again! Jose has big plans soon to strip the trim, stain it to match the stain in the dining room, and we will be painting...probably a robin egg blue...but for now, here it is...
Jose worked on building a large shelf in our toy room to block the kids from this huge concrete and metal thing that's sticking up in back corner (we think it was once where the water heater was) and I had to "phone a friend" to help get a couple pieces of plywood for the project. We had a ton of giggles because the boards had to go on top of her car/SUV/station wagon vehicle and it was quite the exciting drive. Thank goodness we live less than a half mile from Lowes! Then, she was awesome and made pizza for us at our house while Jose finished the project and began the next. As the night continued, we got the shelf in place, a frame around the sump pump (which will soon have boards across it to protect the kids from the pump and the pump from the kids), and re-assembled the room.
Then, we finished a movie and went to bed.
Chapter 5: Hop on over to Sunday
Welp, we overslept and didn't go to church. Instead, we went straight to my mom's for lunch. Then, we drove about 20 minutes to the next town east and went to see Hop with the kids. Cute movie, but Teo was quite ornery during a good portion of it. He did end up falling asleep, just in time to wake up for the entire drive home. Then, dinner and I went to church for our Lenten series. I was special enough to even have the mic for about five minutes or so and explain my role with the Fort Wayne Fatherhood Coalition and Anchor Community Church.
Chapter 6: Hello Monday
Back to life. Real world. Work. Hoping to get this week pretty much done by Wednesday night so that I get to clean Thursday and Friday..we'll see. Oh, and I'm going to try to keep blogging through this insanity...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)