Wednesday, July 30, 2008

One of those days!

Today was one of those challenging days that makes a mom appreciate the boring, er...less eventful days a whole lot more. It started out just fine. I got my work done fairly early, the kids were in a good mood and we decided to take them to the pool. I should mention that Aaron is out of town and his sister, Janae, is here visiting/helping with the kids. More details to come in a separate blog, but I'll just say "Thank Goodness She is Here!" The kids and I are really enjoying visiting with her and she's been soooooooo helpful! Anyway, we took the kids to the pool and that's where things started to fall apart.

My two little ones, who usually LOVE to play in the water were not as thrilled with it as usual. Grace was most concerned about having a snack and Noah decided that the pool chairs made a nice jungle gym. After about an hour, it was naptime and we decided to head home. Just as we were getting ready to leave, Noah slid through one of the chairs and started to cry. We didn't see any obvious damage so headed out to the car.

When we got to the parking lot, there were about 20 geese hanging out by the lake. Noah started saying "Duck, Duck, Duck" so I put him down and let him walk towards them thinking "oh, this will be cute...he'll go towards them and they'll all fly away." NOT! As Noah approached, the head goose started hissing at him. I knew geese were dirty but I had no idea they were mean too!! I swooped in and rescued Noah. As I put him into the car, I noticed that when he slipped, the chair sliced a little chunk out of his leg. I looked down and realized from carrying him to the car I had blood spots all over me (no biggie). We tried to clean it off, but it bled for quite a while.

After we got that cleaned up, we were ready to go. I went to start the car and got the dreaded "click click click." Yep, dead battery. It's happened several times lately, so I've gotten into the habit of holding my breath as I turn the key. I sighed "Nooooooo! NOT TODAY!" Luckily the pool is only about 1.5 miles from our house so I called my friend Holly and she came to our rescue with jumper cables. But alas, after 3 different people tried different things to charge me up, we were not successful. Holly took us all home where the kids fell asleep in 2 seconds flat and slept soundly for a couple of hours. Later in the day, my dad helped me get a new battery into the van and I'm happy to report, it's now alive and kicking.

I, on the other hand, am not kicking. As I was preparing dinner this evening, Noah accidentally threw an iron trivet and it hit me right on the ankle bone. It was one of those pains that instantly brings tears to your eyes. It's swollen now and still pretty painful, but I'm pretty thankful he didn't drop it on his OWN foot. One injury in a day is enough for the poor little munchkin.

Tomorrow is a new day....and I think we'll just stay home! :)

Monday, July 28, 2008

Still a MAN ROOM (just a cleaned up version)


As promised, I wanted to post pictures of Aaron's office. He's been a little on the fence about the makeover. When I suggested it, he got very defensive and decided that I must be trying to move in on his man space (something he insisted he have when we moved into our house). Truth be told, I'm happy to let him have his space as long as he keeps it somewhat neat and lets me use it when I really need it for work (after all--I let him sleep in MY bedroom...lol)

Having said that, I'm on a mission to be 100% clutter free and the foolishness and mayhem (to quote Niecey Nash from Clean House) was not cutting it in there. So, the room got a makeover for Aaron's Father's Day gift. Despite his defensiveness I think he likes it. The other day I heard him tell a friend "hey, let me show you what I've done to my office!" :)

BEFORE:AFTER:

Saturday, July 05, 2008

My NEW FAVORITE Room in the House

For years, I've had a "dream bedroom" in my head. Inspired by a picture in Pottery Barn, but unable/unwilling to pay those kinds of prices, it's been on the back burner. We've worked through most of the other rooms in our house, but our master bedroom has been, well honestly, a total train wreck. It's fairly easy to close the door and keep visitors from catching a peak, so it's been low on the priority list. Still, I've longed for one of the cozy retreats I so often see on hgtv.

There is a local furniture store that sometimes sells floor models dirt cheap and when we get a bonus or have a little extra money, I like to go check it out and see if I can find anything that fits into any of my "dream rooms." A couple of weeks ago I walked through and found my dream furniture marked down about 66%. I talked it over with Aaron and we decided if it was still there when the weekend rolled around, we'd get it and take on another weekend warrior project. Luckily, it was still there! We got up early last Saturday morning and painted the bedroom Laura Ashley Green Apple #4. It was a little shocking pre-furniture, but when we got everything in, it ended up being JUST what I had in mind.

So, I thought I'd share the before and after pics. Now to be fair, our bed isn't made in the before pics because I took the pics as an after-thought after we got up early to get ready to paint. I knew it was going to be a day for transformation so didn't bother with it. :)

BEFORE: (Builder Beige with a bed frame and old furniture moved in. Just a place to sleep.)
And AFTER (Made to Suit US!!)
(I have hung chocolate brown silk curtains since these were taken and plan to get a good cozy reading chair or two at some point, but this is 99% done)



Next time, I'll share Aaron's favorite room in the house, the "man room" (the office). It also recently got a makeover!