Summertime

Summertime is over. School started Thursday (the 16th).

This post is going to have a lot of pictures. We tried to make sure our week off, our vacation at home, our staycation if you will was awesome. We didn't want to spend too much so we decided to stay home, but ended up spending plenty of money anyway at the fair and local shopping and mini golfing and bowling. It was a great week though.We started by trampolining at my brother's house. They're moving and not taking the trampoline with them, so we need to get some jump time in on it before its unavailable.

That's the 4yo jumping with her cousin

Next up, bowling! The 4yo had never been bowling and the 9yo had been with her school. So we took some free coupons we had from their reading program at the library and went and bowled just for the cost of shoe rental. That was pretty sweet.

Daddy helping the 4yo to bowl

The 9yo is clearly a pro

I can do it myself!

After bowling we saw the weather was going to get a bit hot. So we got up a little earlier the next morning and went mini golfing. It was perfect, hot enough we didn't want to be there long, but nice enough we could get through 18 mini holes. We even took a break in the middle to cool off in the a/c and take a potty break. I couldn't decide which photos to post..so I'm posting all the good ones. I did mention this was a photo heavy post, right?

Since it was so hot that day we came home, had some lunch and rested for a bit. Then we headed out to the pool. We're pretty lucky to be able to have a pool and the girls love it. They always find ways to make games and play act things out.

 We took a break for the go go go on Wednesday and then we headed out Thursday to do some horseback riding and visit the Iowa State Fair. The 9yo loved horseback riding and I hung with the 4yo while we waited, which was fun too. So much crazy good food and things to see at the fair and we found some pretty cool products to buy as well. I'd actually like to hunt down the nandymemoholder.com people so I can buy more. I also found sudsysoapcakes.com and haredo.com . We spent too much of course, but it was a lot of fun.

making spin art

the finished spin art

ice cream is so good

Friday we took it easy again and then the weekend was sort of full with adult plans. The husband took a long motorcycle ride with some friends (Poopy's Triangle) and then I had a bachelorette party and Sunday the husband golfed and I had a bridal shower. All in all it was an excellent vacation. 

I also thought it'd be easier this summer to exercise, and do things with the kids and do this and do that. I was wrong. Summer break made it harder to get all the things I wanted to do done..I'm too busy playing with my children in all the free time.

Books

I love to read.  The girls love to read.  So every weekend we find our way to the library and get a new stack of books to read for the week. 

This Sunday while at the library we saw this one.  I hope we never need it.

Poopy's

Today we went to Poopy's.  Last night the in laws (they live in town now)  took the girls overnight.  So we got up and went for a motorcycle ride.  It's about 95 miles total and I learned a lot of things along the way.

There are too many small towns.

Iowa has an island town.  Sabula,  look it up.

My butt has a 35 mile limit before needing a break from the bike.

It's strange to be flying along the highway and not hold on to anything.  When I realize that I grab the strap in front of me.

The sissy bar is awesome.

Poopy's is awesome.  Cool place and good food,  outdoor eating and live music.

I bought a tank top and poopys panties.  Get it,  poopy panties,  ha!  Husband got a tshirt.

Poopy's parking lot. Front and back filled with bikes.

Me in my motorcycle gear.

The Hog for lunch

Fourth Grade

I have another post about our vacation in the works with a ton of pictures etc, but I just can't get to it yet. So instead, today is the first day of school for our district. I now have a fourth grader. FOURTH GRADE!

So big and smart and beautiful

I am a grown up with grown up furniture.

The furniture has arrived!

So, it was initially supposed to deliver July 11th I guess, but I was not aware of that. I find that a lot of the time if you don't call and ask, sometimes things just show up, or don't. In this case, they called to tell me the delivery date changed..even though I never had a date to start. Anyway. The new delivery date was July 25th. My birthday! Hooray! What's better than brand new furniture on your birthday. Nothing. Shhhh Nothing! They called to schedule and set it for between 745 and 945 in the morning. I went upstairs to get ready at 730 thinking I had 15 minutes (after working for about 45 minutes) and heard a truck pull up. Well. I guess I'll get furniture in my pajamas, smelling like waffles and NOT like toothpaste. Oh well. The kids were still asleep too, which was fine. I cleared a path and held the doors as necessary. After putting all our things away. This is what we have.

From the doorway

It is fantastic. We LOVE it.

From the door, straight in.

From my side of the bed, at the beautiful dresser and mirror

From the husband's side

My side of the bed

My favorite thing is my new nightstand. We've never had room for both of us to have a real nightstand until we moved into this house. Ten years ago. I've been using a homemade purple shelf thing for the last 16 years. It did the job, but wasn't pretty and didn't hold very much. The new nightstands - we each get our own - are beautiful, tall and fantastic.

My nightstand. My very own.

I love it so very much. This is my favorite part of it. I ordered some drawer organizers from Amazon and can't wait to find all the uses for them, in these drawers and all over my house.

My top drawer with a new organizer for my nail polishes.

We love it. We're grown ups. Adults with real furniture. The bed is super tall now also, which is both odd and awesome. I love a tall bed I guess. I've decided that if and when I find a beautiful comforter that I love as much as our old purple one, I'll buy it and go back to purple accents for this room. For now the brown and cream works really well. Now I need to decide on artwork and wall decor. I'm thinking three photos above the bed maybe, one of each kid and one of us (the husband and me). I'm going to take my time, so I get it right.

I am impatient

The furniture guys are supposed to call today and give me a delivery window for Wednesday. It's 4:23 PM and they HAVE. NOT. CALLED. They better call in the next 35 minutes. I guess I'll try to be patient and give them a chance to call tomorrow, but if the delivery is scheduled ... OMG THEY JUST CALLED! Hahahaha. I guess I should work on my patience. My furniture will be here between 745 and 945 Wednesday morning. Super happy birthday to me! Apparently it was supposed to be delivered July 11th, but I never knew that until they called to change it. So I thought it was pretty cool it was going to be delivered instead on my birthday. It is a birthday (and mother's day and anniversay) gift after all.

Now I'm super excited. Tomorrow night we'll prep the room, clear the space and sleep on the mattress on the floor (good luck to us trying to keep the dogs off) and then we'll prop it against the wall Wed. morning before the husband goes to work. And then the room will turn AWESOME once it's delivered. I am ridiculously excited. Having the furniture means I can figure out what sort of artwork I want in the room and I'm going to buy some sock drawer organizer thingies to help really organize my drawers. We're sharing a dresser so we'll have less space so we need to use it wisely. I get my own matching nightstand though, so I am beyond thrilled about that. Holy Moly I cannot wait!

Tonight I'm going to work out. Before dinner. I have a new total gym workout dvd (we have a Weider knockoff but the dvd works) And then swim maybe after dinner..or just for a short while beforehand. Then I'll get back to work tomorrow and try to focus knowing that the furniture it coming the next day!

Honestly. I am so easily pleased. I cannot wait to see it and use it and be a grown up with real bedroom furniture!

Crushed by Responsibility

I am responsible.

I am responsible for dishes, and laundry, and general house cleanliness (I fail a bit..ok a lot... here). I am responsible for getting the children up and feeding most meals. I am responsible for keeping the kids clean and school registration. I am responsible for doctor appointments and dental appointments. I am responsible for waking them up and getting them ready for school or preschool or whatever day it might be. I am responsible for the dogs; training them, feeding them, scheduling groomings and vet care. I am responsible for my own health and the health of my family. I don't cook...very well. I am responsible to blame for my youngest's lack of taste (in food). I am responsible to keep myself as fit as I can, while keeping up all the other things.

I am responsible for the bills. I manage Quicken and make the decisions about when we pay what bills, when I get overwhelmed, the husband helps me out. I feel responsible to NOT spend anything extra when we own anyone anything for any amount of time. I feel responsible when the dogs chew something. I feel responsible when the kids get too annoying and we can't take it anymore and our voices get loud and then there's crying and hurt feelings. I feel responsible when I just can't read another book at bedtime because I'm aching to just sit and be.

I'm crushed by responsibility. I'd like to just relax and not worry about any of it. But I can't do that. It's not within me to NOT know when the bills are being paid or what our disposable cash flow will be at any moment. It's not within me to leave all of these things to someone else. Partially because I don't know who that person would be and partially because I don't think I trust anyone else to do it right.

(Lest anyone point out that I didn't mention these things...I am not responsible for the pool/spa, house appliance maintenance, the yard or the car maintenance. Thank heavens for that.)

I'd like to be just a little bit irresponsible someday. Maybe when all these responsibilities pay off we can be a little irresponsible. Being responsible is tiring.

In the bedroom

Oh stop it. This is about a bedroom remodel of sorts. We're waiting for the arrival of a new bedroom set, from HomeMakers furniture, made by Daniel's Amish. A new dresser that we'll share, taller than standard and two new nightstands. I'm sure I've mentioned it, but I am SO EXCITED to have my own REAL nightstand. I can hardly stand the waiting.  It's set to be delivered on my birthday (July 25th).

Right now, our room looks like we just moved in and have no more money to buy furniture. I didn't want to wait too long to put our old stuff up on craigslist because I wasn't sure how long it would take to sell.  Now that I've sold it, I'm thinking I could have asked for more or waited a week. If you recall, we had two large chests and one nightstand. I took photos and posted them on craigslist on Friday morning and then the husband and I moved out our clothes and moved it all down to the garage. I sold a chest and nightstand by 5pm. I had also previously posted our wrought iron headboard and footboard and that sold on Friday also at 6pm. So I had just one chest to go. And Monday a lovely woman came and took it. No haggling from anyone, just sold it all straight up, it was awesome.  Ok, that's a partial lie - I did come down $10 on the headboard/footboard..but it was 15 years old, still in great shape and I felt like I got my money's worth out of it and I was really really tired of seeing it sitting in my hallway.

So now we have this.

My side, boxes of nightstand gear awaiting a new home.

Husband's side, tv tray for a nightstand since we sold his. ha.

No clothing storage. I bought two bins for now and I intend to reuse them for school supplies and crafts or maybe extra lightbulbs. It's weird how many extra lightbulbs we have, balancing precariously on a storage shelf.

Anyway. I cannot wait. And then I get to figure out what sort of artwork or photography adorns the walls. I'm still not hugely in love with the brown and cream theme, but I love the wallcolor and the blackout curtains are really nice..so hopefully I can find artwork to complement and prettify it.

The Kiss

A couple people have posted today about a Nivea free lip care giveaway thingy. Apparently it's only on Facebook (click here) so I can't enter. Facebook is lame and I quit after a few months. But the giveaway involves posting a kissing picture of yourself (or someone else I guess). So I went and found the picture I would post and was all ready to participate...and then it turns out its only Facebook. Boo.

This is the picture I would have posted.

We are something like 18 and 19 at the time. He came to see me at college for the day and we went shopping and hung out all day. The only bad thing about his visits was that he had to leave and I had to stay behind. I quit after a year. That place was a hole. Anyway..this is clearly a photo booth photo and we're so young. I know exactly what I'm wearing though, and if you could see the other picture you'd see I'm wearing a giant bow in my hair and my bangs are gigantic and nearly plastic as well. Oh the good old days of 1994.

Feel free to poke fun in the comments.

The Screaming

I took Tuesday off. I had scheduled the girls' physicals for that afternoon so I went ahead and scheduled the dogs vet/shot visit as well. I was pretty proud of myself, both for remembering to schedule all of it, as well as for remembering to do it in advance enough that I wasn't stuck with a walk in clinic or rush job. So..here's a run down of the day. Don't worry, we'll get to The Screaming.

8am Wake up the girls, get everyone rolling

9am drop the 9yo off at Vacation Bible School

10am take the dogs (4yo with me) to the vet, exam, shots, lucy has a yeast infection in her ear.

11am $350 later- GAH! - leave the vet and head over to pickup the 9yo

Home for lunch and a short visit with the hubs who is also home for lunch

1pm head out to Target to pick up new bedside lamp for 9yo, she's still using the lamp from her nursery. Too short and too dim. and Filthy, Jeeeez do I clean ever. (no).

1:30 head to ToysRUs for a hula hoop detour

2:00 head to Hancock Fabrics for some beading to embellish the lamp, it's a plain white lamp because the most important thing is that she be able to SEE and READ by this lamp, not that its soooo cute and sooo soft and oooo look at the beads. No. $18 later, beads aquired..I really need to check the prices of things more closely before I'm at the pay line.

2:30 head downtown to the doctor office for the physicals

So the girls look at the fish while I check us in. The nurse comes out, ready to test their vision, get height, weight, etc. The girls do great, but the 9yo is starting to get weepy. She knows the appointment has begun and she's been anxious about the potential for a shot since I mentioned the appointment - a month ago. So we go to the exam room, 4yo starts first, temp and blood pressure with the nurse..then 9yo. Then the doctor (ARNP) comes in and we talk about each kid, takes at least 25 minutes to get all the questions answered and discover that 9yo gets one HepA shot and 4yo is due for 4 shots. Ok..doctor is going to send in it the super fast nurse. Great.

9yo is going first to get it over with. She comes in, we're prepped and she asks "arm or leg?" The 9yo's panic is so great, she can't decide, because her answer would be NOWHERE. So I said leg and just do it. The 9yo then SCREAMS. Glass shattering scream. Twice. Directly into my ear and the nurse's ear. The 4yo is now also freaked out because what the wha why did she scream. I did not anticipate that level of panic and screaming. So I sort of got the giggles after that, because I have tried to distract her, to promise her that it's ok that I wouldn't let anything bad happen to her, that these shots keep her healthy. She is unconvinced and her anxiety is so high, she cannot fathom what's about to happen. She admits now that the shot wasn't quite that bad.

Next up I put the 4yo on the table, she's due for 4 shots, so while the nurse is really really fast, it's a lot. I watch her face as I'm sort of holding her down, so I see the shock and pain cross her face with each poke. She is not at all please, but she does not scream. She yells a little and cries but I can still hear. She limps around all afternoon because her legs are "injured" she says. I agree, she's probably in some pain. Wed. morning we wake up, take the 9yo to Vacation Bible School again, come home to get lunch. 4yo has Cocoa Puffs and orange juice..and then pukes all over the table and floor. Apparently a side effect of DTaP vaccine is fussiness (check!), tiredness (check!), and vomiting (check!). She is limping seriously now also, and I have to carry her to the couch to rest and watch tv.

So, that day sort of started out well, but took a nasty dive. Things are  much better today, although the 9yo thought she was going to puke today, the 4yo is much better and hopefully I'll be even smarter next time and NOT tell them when I've scheduled the appointment and maybe also NOT schedule them at the same time/day. (Updated: Also stagger the dog appointments so they don't take ALL my money every time we go there, and perhaps we don't need a $44 exam AND $23 poop test - that's PER DOG - every year).

Lamp turned out really cute though, huh.

A sensitive girl

I am raising a very sensitive and anxious girl. I didn't quite realize it until recently.  I was so proud of myself this year, for scheduling a physical for both girls. Typically it takes some sort of miracle to get into the pediatrician for a physical appointment. They take those specially, you can't just sneak it into a regular visit, and if you don't call as soon as possible, you won't get in. It's super stupid. But this year, before school was out, I called and scheduled them both for a physical. The 4yo needs one for preschool. The 9yo just hasn't had a physical in awhile, so if we're going, they might as well both go.

So I told them about the appointments a month ago. I told them it was in June.  At first it was no big deal, but when school let out, the 9yo started having trouble sleeping. She would go to bed, and read her book for awhile, and then she'd call me in to tell me her stomach was 'jumping' and her legs hurt (growing pains sort of). This went on for a week. Somewhere in there I think she'd talked herself into thinking she was going to throw up. I asked her once what was going on and she said she might be nervous about the doctor appointment coming up. I was surprised to hear that, told her it'll be fine, not to worry about it. The real point though, is that awhile before that she asked if she was going to have to get a shot. I don't like to lie to them outright (except for their own good of course, Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy...whatever). So I said I didn't know - because I don't. I think she IS due for a booster of some sort, but I don't know for sure. But I said it'd be no problem, quick and easy, no worries.  So a few nights ago she was at it again. My tummy is getting jumpy, she says.  So I massaged her legs and said you have to tell me what's going on. Right now. Tell me.

I'm really nervous about the doctor appointment you said was coming up later in June. Oy. I talked her down, talked her through it, asked her what happens if you get a shot...its over..and then what...nothing. It's no problem. Also, she's been asking about getting her ears pierced, and a shot is a good way to get a feel for that. She's not convinced still, but she has stopped letting the anxiety get the better of her.

Whew. I'm going to have to watch out for that. Both for what I say about things that make her nervous and about reassuring her when the anxiety is unavoidable. This isn't a trait she gets from me, but I think I can help her manage it. And hopefully she'll grow more confident and less anxious as time goes by and life goes on. She is my sweet, sensitive, anxious almost TEN year old first baby girl.

The Master: BEFORE

I'm getting antsy about the bedroom furniture. For several reasons. Is it going to come in the right finish? The catalog where the salesman got the codes had a photo that did NOT look like the furniture finish I expect. The wood sample in the store is what I want. That better be what shows up. Anyway, it's time to show you what the BEFORE room looks like. I've started taking down art, clearing out side tables and prepping things to photograph and try to craigslist. I sure hope these giant chests sell.

Here is a fancy drawing I've done of the current room layout. Hopefully this makes the photos to follow a bit more clear. So, you walk into the room, to the right the closet sort of sticks out, making a little corner there - we put the dog water bowl there. The left wall is blank until you get to the bathroom door, the far wall has a large window, and the right wall is blank.  The purple shapes are my homemade nightstand, which is purple (to match old decor) but has just a shelf and isn't very useful and a round 5-drawer stand I was putting polish into. I'm selling that on craigslist and I'll re-use the other shelf in the basement or something for storage of some sort I'm sure. Maybe :)

The wall paint color is called Pralines & Cream but I can't remember the maker right now. I do still have the swatch though. We started out with a cream and purple theme, but the purple comforter ripped and I haven't found anything I love enough or that I'm confident enough matching with curtains to stay in that theme. We remodeled the master bathroom, and I feel that the color schemes need to match in the two rooms. So since we went with a cream and brown theme..that's where we're headed with the bedroom. The comforter and curtains are taken care of. The rest of what you see..goes away.

view from the doorway

view from the se corner, looking to the doorway, bathroom door on right

view from window on far wall, to the door and closet wall

view from se corner toward master bath.

So, I've removed a lot since these photos. The photo above the laundry basket found a new home in the living room, I removed the candle sconces and the curvy ones above the bed. I LOVE the art, but I'm going to swap it for something that matches. The in-laws are moving to town and they have some of the same art, so if they have room in their new house for it, they can use these as well. Otherwise, I'll keep them and find new homes for it. I'm hoping to find some nice art that can go above the bed at least, the other walls I'm not sure of. The art in the first photo to the right of the window is only there because I wanted to use it and didn't have any other walls. We've also removed the 2nd shelf from the TV holder thing. So there is now more room between the jewelry armoire and the tv shelf. That's an XBOX on the shelf - we use it with Windows Media Center and an extender to watch TV in the bedroom.  I also LOVE my lamps, they're clear lucite(?) balls and I think I'll just update the shades when the room is done to something more creamy and maybe I'll add my own brown accent embellishment perhaps. If the candle sconces don't sell on CraigsList I may keep them and paint them brown and hand them on each side of the new dresser mirror if that looks good.

Now, here is a fancy drawing of the room layout AFTER the new furniture arrives.I'll have a matching nightstand and we'll be sharing a sort of oversized dresser. It's being built by Daniel's Amish out of Ohio and we purchased it at Homemakers in Des Moines, IA which is a subsidiary of Nebraska Furniture Mart. It was customizable so we could make it taller/shorter, more drawers, less.. here is a photo of the store display.

store display

We're getting a more brown finish, I don't like the red/cherry tones with my brown/cream theme. So it should be a whiteacre finish on brown maple. We are not buying a chest of drawers, just headboard/footboard, 2 nightstands and dresser. The dresser you see has a top row of a small drawer, long drawer, small drawer. We're changing that so there will be 2 long drawers on top. That way we don't have to share the middle one, we'll each have our own set of 4 drawers.

Hurry up furniture!

I'm on a kick.

I'm on this organizing purging cleaning rearranging kick. I've suddenly become obsessive about throwing out things we never use, donating things we never wear or use and organizing the things we do use and need. I think part of the reason is the new bedroom furniture that we have coming in a couple months. I need my clothes to be sorted out so that I can fit them into the new smaller dresser (that I'll share with the husband) and I also need to be able to photograph and try to sell the current chests we use. I want to make the whole process easier and smooth for everyone. Well, mostly for me.

So. The chests of drawers we have are giant. 4 deep drawers and then 2 smaller drawers. They sort of take over the room with the way we've placed them. The new dresser will replace both of these, with a really nice mirror on top. The new dresser is taller than standard and longer, so we aren't losing that much space really and it really is time for us to pare down our clothes. The husband and his t-shirts...wow.

The CHESTS - the piles at the bottom are donation and trash piles.

I cannot wait to see how awesome the dresser will look there - without overpowering the entire room and seeming to block the walk way. It doesn't really, but it does feel like it. These chest were a good deal at K's Merchandise, when it still existed and it was a huge upgrade from the furniture that we'd been using. It was my dresser/chest from when I was a kid, I brought it with me when we got married. When we switched to this..it was time to switch and these were a great, affordable choice. But now. They gots to go.

So, I cleaned out the girls' drawers first, taking out and sniffling over the 2T and 3T stuff that no longer fits the 4yo. And moving the stuff that's too small for the 9yo into bins for the 4yo to wear later. Then I got out the bins of 4/5T stuff I'd saved from the 9yo and put them into the little one's drawers. She could not be more pleased about all the dresses I found. I am not pleased at all. It can't be possible that she's old enough to wear these dresses that were so adorable on my...hey, when did the 9yo outgrow all these things, she can't possibly be this old. Gah. They love it. I do not. But we're all clothed, so that's what matters. Here are the piles.

The donation pile.

 I made a list and photographed everything I intended to donate. I like to have photos because we take the donations as a deduction on taxes and this time the piles were huge. So I also made a list of sizes/types/brands. I filled the front and back of a lined piece of paper plus a list of kid clothes that I grouped by type instead of noting all the various brands etc. That is quite a list. I might actually have to use It's Deductible this year to figure that out.

The trash pile. Stained, missing buttons/zip, things no one should wear again ever.

The trash pile is smaller, but there were a lot of things I had been hanging onto for sentimental reasons. Sentiment is no reason to clog a closet or drawer. So my 1994 high school colorguard sweatshirt went, along with my 1994 poms sweatshirt and a pile of other t-shirts neither of us is ever going to wear. Don't fret - I kept a few shirts that I will wear in a pinch or to paint :)

Tupperware cabinet - BEFORE

Next up - the KITCHEN! My tupperware cabinet was bugging me. The 4yo likes to cook with those from time to time and she puts things back, but its so clogged in there, it was really starting to get on my nerves. I had these tiny 1" x 1" rubbermaid containers that couldn't hold anything more than dressing...so I decided it was time to purge. Success! Even the 4yo is pleased that she can more easily cook with what's left behind.

Tupperware cabinet - AFTER

It's a little difficult to tell that it's cleaner, but I moved the water bottles to the top right, where they'll never get used, threw out a pile of unused containers, put the lids on the container it belongs with, and laid it out in a way that I think will allow us to get to the most used items first.  Next up - utensil drawers!

Main cooking utensil drawer - BEFORE

Extra utensil drawer - BEFORE

I KNEW we had too many, but I could never find a minute or motivation to go through it. Apparently I found it. We had duplicates of so many things, and some pieces were cracked or chipping - definitely something I want near my food. So I sat down with a towel, sorted out both drawers and then lined them with that rubbery mat stuff so things wouldn't just fly around in the drawers.

Main utensils - AFTER

Extra utensils - AFTER

I'm sure we still have a few too many things in both drawers but it's all much more visible now and easier to see, grab and use. You should have heard the husband sometimes, trying to get a utensil  out of the main drawer. Grumbling because it was stuck on some other utensil or hung up on the drawer itself. Funny for me, cranky for him :) That shouldn't be as much of a problem now.

Now..I still have one problem cabinet. Well, I'm sure all my cabinets could use some attention, but for the most part, we're cleaned and organized. This last one..I just don't know what to do. I feel like I should extend the shelf in it somehow..but I'm not sure how..and I think maybe there's a better way to organize pots and pans (and a few bowls I should probably move) and I just haven't discovered it yet.

Pot and Pan madness

See, it's just a disorganized pile. I don't even bother trying anymore. Sometimes I throw a pot in after its clean and close the door really fast so I don't have to see it and so nothing falls out. Ha. What should I do with this cabinet?

And now I'm off, to shower and get dressed and get up the 4yo. I'm not working today because it's the 9yo's last day of third grade so I'm taking her to lunch wherever she'd like to go (within reason of course). And then their summer begins. Not a great day for it - it's raining and cold today. Oh well.

I promise

There is a post coming. I just keep running out of time to do it. I have taken a ton of pictures of some of the things I've been cleaning and organizing around the house. I'm sure it's much more exciting for me than it might be for you but I intend to post about it soon. I had hoped to post my progress on the list I'd made of things to do around the house...but I got distracted by all kinds of things. 

A sort of partial list of what I got through:
- clean out drawers, mine, husbands and both girls
- photograph stuff to be donated (half done)
- touch up ceiling paint in whole house
- look for large red vase for front yard ( no purchase yet, i hope soon)
- power wash house (husband did this)
- swim (we swam on Sunday, super hot outside, pool a nice 83 degrees)
- shop for new sandals for girls (done)
- hang out with my dad, his girlfriend with her kids for Memorial Day
- new swimsuits for the girls
- kitchen drawer and cabinet organization (about half done)

Things still to do:
- figure out solution for pots/pans cabinet
- pick/buy/plant big red vase for front yard (go to Earl May)
- paint exterior front door trim (white)
- make chore charts
- spray yard for bugs (husband)
- finish photos of donation and take to Goodwill
- order piggy bank for friends adopting
- clean master bedroom headboard/footboard, prep for sale
- get new cfl lightbulbs for girls fans
- balance 9yo ceiling fan (it shimmies so much, and makes so much noise, she refuses to use it)
- clean/organize under sink
- take down master bedroom art
- fill holes in master BR walls from art
- get new desk rubber mat (this plastic thing is crap and lasts all of 2 seconds)
- dust the house (this might never get done)
- research new bedroom sheers
- research blackout curtains for girls rooms (can ivory/white curtains really be blackout?)
- get gate kit for pool deck (husband)

GAH. That's a lot more TO DO than I got done. That's a little discouraging. Oh well, some of the things I got done were pretty satisfying, and going shopping with the 9yo, just she and I, was pretty great on Sunday. Anyway...more to come.

If you're bored, while waiting for my next awesome post, read my friends as they travel in S.Korea and pick up their son. It's been a long road and I am so very excited that it's finally coming to a point where they have him with them. Read about it here.

Blessed

So today is a great day. Other than the part where I'm working of course. No one wants to work, but I don't hate my work, so it's all good.

Two days ago we got emails that our dear friends are finally flying to S. Korea to pickup their adopted son. It's been over a year in the process, and he'll be two in September. It is so exciting that they can finally finish this step of the process and focus on being parents (before they do it again of course). I need to order a piggy bank for him and next Friday we'll meet them at the airport to welcome them home and snap some photos so they can remember (the husband will be the photog, mine are always blurry). Then they'll have the summer (she's a teacher with the summer off) to get him used to living here and used to his new family. Pray for them, it's bound to be a difficult transition for all of them.

Last night we talked to the in-laws as well. They've been working on selling their house and finding a place in town near us. It's been a little slow going, but it seems like in the last week things fell into place. The people that made a not great offer on their house have brought their offer up and proven financials that they can buy their house. So that's considered a sale. They also wanted to move up the closing date to July1 so it moves everything along a bit faster. Luckily the in-laws have a 36 foot really nice RV that they spend most of their summer in anyway, so this all works out pretty well. They'll get their new house building shortly on a lot very near to us (and to a lot of other places here in town, which is excellent) and they'll head down to Georgia in July after they close on their house sale to see the sister-in-law and welcome the new baby. Father-in-law also applied for a bus driver job at Sophie's school campus and got a call less than an hour later to come interview. They're also interested in mother-in-law for a bus aide position. So they're both coming next week to interview. All of this is such excellent news. I'm so very very excited.

Also, it's Friday!

And a long weekend - yay for Memorial Day!

And payday for the husband!

And the pool is nearly clean enough to swim in! in time for the holiday weekend!

And Sophia is almost done with 3rd grade. 3RD GRADE! She'll be a 4th grader..and TEN years old this fall. GAH! Yay for how wonderful she is..but GAH stop growing already!

And I have this awesome list of things I plan to organize and clean and donate this weekend and woooohoo I love it!

God is good. No one else can take credit for all these good things happening in our lives. It's a good day.

I hope everyone's day is great as well!