Let the Decorating Begin!

One of these days I'm going to have to find myself a design class to audit. Maybe a class on color theory. Something. Just to immerse myself in it for a bit once again. Nothing for credit or a degree because I don't want it. I just love color and design and art. It's been with me as long as writing has. Just can't get enough of it.

Having a relatively empty house has given the designer in me so much happiness but it has also shown me just how limited I really am in my way of thinking about how to make things work. It's taken me a while to figure out some of the problems we have with the rooms but I am happy with the resolutions so far - on paper. How they will play out in real life is another thing.

But what's good so far is the reassurance that Mr. T and I didn't just marry each other. Our tastes married as well. Having similar taste is really helpful when you have to live with a husband - and furniture - for a really long time.

I've been furniture shopping for the living room for the past few weeks. Mr. T has been working pretty much non-stop so I've been happy to make my plan on my own and figure out what I wanted to see in the room. Some men don't like to be bothered with these trivialities and tell you to just pick what you want. Mine is involved with every detail of just about every thing. So the key is to decide everything beforehand and then let him in on it so that his mind is now cluttered with my thoughts and it's harder to think of his own thing. Sneaky? Nah. Men need guidance. Women know that. Besides, I'm not discounting his opinion entirely. Just looking for my top choices and then he can pick from those. Easy!

Or not. It's been a tough search finding the right rug. I don't want to spend $800 on it because it's not going to be a focal point in the room. The current carpet is a light beige and I just need a little distinction, nothing major. But so far I haven't found what I want. So I focused on furniture for a bit. Can't be too light or hard to clean. Can't be too big or too small. And in all that searching I had finally found my inspiration:



I fell in love with it instantly and it gave me the design direction I needed. I realized that I didn't want it to come from the budget I had slated for the room. This was going to have to be my own personal purchase so the cost of it can go toward all the other furniture needed. But Mr. T was still so busy working, working, I couldn't show him my new find. Each day I'd ask him, "Don't you want to see my chair?" "Not now," he'd say. "Tomorrow, tomorrow."

Tomorrow finally came yesterday after he woke up from his long nap. He looked at the picture and made a face I couldn't interpret, but I told him - as I showed him all the things I had found so far and explained the design plan - that the chair was non-negotiable. "Sorry. I love it. It stays. But you can go with me to sit on sofas!"

"OK," he said, prompting a mad dash to get the kids dressed and to make the rounds in about 5 stores in the 1 hour we had until they closed. He was interested. I had to run with it - literally!

I drove and thought about where to go first in order to maximize our time. Then I realized I had to take him to see the chair in person and the set that went with it, which was the best of everything I had seen. This way he'd keep the colors and style in mind as he looked at everything else.

We went, we sat, we corralled our children and started to walk away as Mr. T. told the sales guy, "I can pay cash. If you give me a deal, we can do this today."

"Ohhh! Well, I can't do that. I've gotta talk to the boss."

"OK. Talk to him then."

One brief negotiation and a new credit account later, the chocolate brown set - minus the chair - is slated to be delivered Thursday. I'll get the chair in a few weeks after wedding mania slows down. (I've got 3 to attend next month.) All I can do is smile. I love it when Mr. T does what I want no questions asked except for one:

"It's what you wanted, right?"

"Yep."

"Done."

Spring Hopes Eternal

I am one tired sistah - again - but it's Spring and hope abounds.

Hope for energy. Hope for more change, although the change thus far has been pretty good and it isn't all mine so that's good too.

I have the hope that Daughter will learn how to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. When we ran out of pull-ups recently, we took on the challenge of going cold turkey. Of course, sleep is a lot more broken up now as we play Beat the Bladder - I think the score is now 10-5, our loss - but we're remain eternally hopeful. Plus, Daughter is feeling like even more of a big girl when she wakes up in a desert instead of a pool so we can't turn back now.

I have the hope of walking again. After a year, my treadmill is finally back with me as well as about 10 boxes of books. I moved it, I cleaned it, I ran it and it's still humming. I refuse to make a plan with it but the idea is to simply be able to start walking again while I'm watching TV those nights Mr. T is sleeping. I'm actually quite excited but getting back to the size I should be means seriously discussing that third kid. Not sure I'm completely ready for that but the clock is ticking.

I have the hope of adult furniture! Nope, we haven't started looking yet because we've been too busy on the weekends and my goal right now is to get Daughter a new dresser. Mr. T's way is to see what the need is and then comparison shop it to death. In this case, the comparison shopping can't go on too long because the bed is already there and it is beckoning its mates - the dresser specifically. We're not going to find it anywhere other than where we got the bed but he thinks we can find the source of the bed, which will mean a huge savings. So I wait because that savings can get the bookcase I want for Son and 2 for 1 is a great deal to me. In the meanwhile I can let my inner designer enjoy the thoughts of what we want to do and revel in the anticipation.

I have the hope for big business. We did a photo shoot of our puzzles recently so we can do some marketing we need to do. Our potentially REALLY big client remains on our horizon. We share the same financial advisor so I hear about her progress from time to time and boy will I be happy when she's under way. I really think she'll help us turn a corner. But as I ticked off the things we had in the works, Bizzy Girl and I were pleased that we've got a year's worth of things to do and if they all come off even a little bit, we should still be ahead of what we did last year. Plus the store where we are wants us to try a 2nd site they are opening in order to give us a better chance at sales - practically nil so far but we have a solution in the works - so we're thinking about it.

Lastly, I have the hope for something else and I can't even go into it right now because it's too nebulous. But it makes me happy to think about it.

Weddings abound, Son is on the way to moving up in Scouts, Daughter is beyond eager for kindergarten and all is well in my world. Let's keep it that way.

Office Space

I had to take a day off from work. I told you last time that my energy level is currently below normal and yet it may be more that I simply want to focus on just one thing at a time right now. Well, maybe just a few things.

I needed to find out why my computer was so darned slow. (Now I know plus I'm informed I have a CD burner that I didn't even now I had!) I needed to do some stuff for my business. And I needed to do one more important thing.

As you already know, my office has been a constant source of aggravation because I want it neat. So yesterday I completed the 2nd round of purging and now I have only what I need - want - love in there, in a pile on the floor or in a box, waiting for me to get it a permanent home. Yesterday I also had to go to the store with my partner and get the puzzles swapped out for Valentine's Day so when I finished sorting the stuff in my office, I had an hour to spare before she showed up at the store. Off I went to the nearby HomeGoods and Target to see what kind of storage solutions were out there that might fit the bill.

Qualifications?
Has to be colorful.
Has to be fun for me to handle.
Has to be roomy.
Has to NOT be too expensive so I can get more than one of something.
Has to have at least 2 of one thing available so I can have a set.

HomeGoods has a lot of great, unique stuff but either it's too basket-y or the wrong color or too floral or simply costs more than I want to pay right now. I saw one potential that zipped. But I'm not sure yet about the actual depth of the cubbies in the bookcase so I have to get that first and measure the space. Those boxes may be too big. Plus it has major blue stripes in it (though it also has the other colors I want) so I'm not sure it will work. But that zipper is very enticing. Still, it has to be love at first sight AND fit the bill. This one is love but may not fit the bill so off to Target I went.

They must have been doing inventory because there were clerks in nearly every aisle beeping and booping and, frankly, getting in my way! I still had time before I had to go to MY store so I walked up and down thinking and looking and seeing potential but not quite it. You know, there are baskets all over the place really but you have to go everywhere to see them because they are not all in one place. I have watched enough HGTV to have it ingrained in me that you don't have to use something the way it was created to be used. I checked out the storage things in the kitchen section. I headed to the kids' section and the home section, the bathroom section and the fancier home section that sits all by itself at the back of the store enticing you with its luxurious display of worldly items. Zip. Annoyed, I started to wander back to pay for the one little drawer organizer I picked up when I looked down an aisle and saw more interesting green. (Why can't this stuff just all live together?)

Indeed there was more good-looking stuff and when hope was just about gone, I spotted this:



And it had a friend! But no price. I found a nearby scanner that blissfully informed me that this sweet canvas box in the pretty green color with the equally solid top was only $10. There were two more around in a light blue - there goes that blue again - but I opted for just the two for now because I knew what could live in them and I knew they would fit on those shelves no matter what size it was.

It's amazing how such a find can make a person happy but it does. I have to remind myself every now and again that, as my grandmother would have said, I get my love of this stuff honest. After all, I did plan to be an interior designer once upon a time. I could sit in a furniture store going through decorating mags with HGTV on in the background and NEVER grow tired. My idea of heaven on earth, for sure.

I took my weighty boxes, happily forfeited the twenty bucks and went off to meet my friend at the store. I won't go into details on that right now but we left there pretty invigorated too so yesterday was a very fruitful and satisfying day overall.

Those zippy boxes are still in my head though. There IS another HomeGoods one town over from where I work. They WERE very sturdy boxes. And pretty. And zippy. It wouldn't hurt to get just one, right?

Internal Conversations

Where have you been, Monica?!

Oh, around.

Doing what? You haven't been blogging. Bad blogger!

Yes, yes. I know. I know. But you know what? I'm in a downcycle at the moment. You'll have to forgive me.

A downcycle?

Yes, I tend to have long spurts of energy and creativity (this last one has actually been going since I was pregnant with Daughter fours years ago) and then one day - poof! - I'm done. There's only enough energy to do what I need to do. See, I think I told you once I could be a little bit compulsive, a little bit of a perfectionist...

I've heard tales.

Silence! As I was saying, my body and I work really well together. No matter how much I may want to do something, when it's time to chill, my body just shuts down and refuses to let me do more the minimum.

What's the minimum?


Well, work, of course, because we do have 2 kids and a mortgage and a need to eat and drink. Mind you, work has been HECTIC. Beyond hectic and curiously enough, I'm not on a downcycle there. But there isn't much energy for much else. I go to work, I come home and do what I need to do. That's it.

What about your business?

This is one of those times when it has to sort of fend for itself, unfortunately. We have the puzzles in the store so they don't need me there, though there is a marketing idea I need to implement there. We have our new marketing person who is doing the thinking at the moment. Just have to wait to see what he comes up with. And we have our old marketing person who SHOULD be working on something for the 20008 holidays so she doesn't need me to bug her just yet. (I'll do it when I have a spurt of energy. Got to make sure she's on track. I am a perfectionist after all.)

Well, what about your business partner?

She is literally doing the work of 3 people at her job. She's sort of out of commission herself unless I tell her I need her to do something. Then she does it. But being proactive is out of the question for her at the moment, I'm afraid.

And home?

Home is great. I do have the energy to take care of it because I think I told you I wanted to do a little more nesting this year. So Saturday I ran around getting a few more things for the kids' bathroom so I could finally get the stupid shower curtains up and a curtain at the window. Boy is my bathroom floor happy (and drier) now! And after church on Sunday, I cleaned more stuff out of my office, purging the 2006/2007 papers and sending them to live in the garage until maybe 2010 or 2011. I should be able to toss those by then, yes? I also relegated the two bins full of baby stuff to the garage as well until - until - just until. Now doing all this meant I had to also do a little straightening in the garage so I did that too because I REFUSE to have my garage look like a forgotten storage unit. So after shifting things around in there and tossing some stuff out, I went back to my office to finish things up and now I finally have the space created for the 2 bookcases I will be getting. Honest! There are empty spaces on 2 of my walls where bookcases will soon live. I did more online shopping and nothing is topping those Ikea bookcases in terms of not only price but size. They seem to offer more room than others I found. My feet were killing me by the end of the night but there is nothing left to do in that office now except give everything a home. I'm working on that.

Sounds like you're rolling along then!

I am indeed.

So you aren't REALLY doing nothing.

No, never not doing nothing. That would be just boring for me. Just doing less right now. Some things are simmering on the back burner, some are cooking with gas. I get my hair done. That's something, yes? I take Son to his cub scout stuff. That's something else. It's all good.

So when will you be blogging again?


What? I just did, silly!

Boxes, Boxes, Anywhere?

I am sick of looking at my papers everywhere. Look at this mess:

I have big plastic bins full of things that I still have to go through and some paper boxes hanging around as well. And bags. Don't forget the bags.

And my desk? I can't even get a reprieve there when I jump online to check email or, of course, blog before the world. Do you see this stuff?

It's insane and I need some order. I had to spend a few weekends first thinking long and hard about the kind of bookcase I wanted in my office. I thought I wanted something green so I can have a bit more whimsy in the place. I was considering something like this green bookshelf I found online. Not too light, not too dark. Not too ornate.

But it just wasn't sitting right with me. As I thought about the bookshelf, I thought about what would live on that bookshelf; how my pretty boxes from I-don't-know-where would look on something like this. But pretty boxes would get lost on this, wouldn't they? And would the green really go well with the desk and chest I got that were in the blond wood family? I was beginning to think not. Maybe the best thing to do is to get something more neutral - say, blond - so the color of the boxes could not only help usher in the color in the room (nevermind that the walls are already Orange Blossom), but the color would simply pop better on that wood.

Now the chest and the desk have curves, so I was thinking I wanted a bookcase that had some curves, but so far no dice. Besides, the one bookshelf that won't leave my mind is the one I first saw long ago that caught my attention because it was open and would allow the color of the walls to show through. I'm past transitional living, mind you, but when something fits, I guess it fits and thank God when that something doesn't cost you your first born child. So even though the wood isn't quite the same wood as what I have on the desk and chest, I think I am going to get this from - shudder - Ikea.
Yep. Ikea IS a fun place to hang out. Don't get me wrong. But I am SICK of building furniture. The $60 I paid to have my desk put together in one hour sold me on never building furniture again. But I don't think Ikea has a furniture assembly service they deal with. Or maybe they do. I'll have to check.

So with the potential bookshelf possibly chosen, I came home tonight to once again look at what I have sitting around to see if I can figure out what kinds of categories I have growing under these plastic lids. I've already made a list of what I know I have in general and tried to figure out what might work best in boxes, and what would be better off in notebooks. I'm even working on going through all the magazines I've saved over a long time to finally tear out the articles that meant something to me and put them - in category order - in a notebook. Oh yes. That's how organized I plan to be in here.

As I lay the time-touched papers and magazines at my feet and surround myself with memories and reminders of what I still need to do, I come across one of the paper companies I have dealt with for my business and it occurs to me that maybe I have been searching all wrong on the Internet for the pretty boxes I am so desperately seeking. I know they exist. I saw loads of them at HomeGoods after work today, but they were florals and dark leathers and simply the wrong colors all over the places. And I saw about 3 -4 aisles of these wrong boxes! So hurtful. If I had no decor to think of, I could have gone nuts! But as always, I can't find what I want when I want it. Only lots of tempting imposters. Why can't I find beautiful containers like these:

Or these:

Or even these, but these are too small and they only come in these so-so colors:

I've searched Pottery Barn, Stacks and Stacks, The Container Store, Bed, Bath and Beyond, Linens n' Things, Walmart, Target, you name it. Why must it be such a chore to get the colors I seek?

In my travels, however, I did discover this great looking blog written by a professed OrgJunkie. I love her colors and the cartoon shelf in her header is pretty much the shelf I picture in my head when I look over at the blank wall behind me. Maybe this organization maven will have some answers for me when I get the time to go trolling through her posts. I do have a colleague from one of my business groups who is a professional organizer to whom I can resort as well, and she even lives on my street, so I know all hope is not lost. And oh! Do you like jewelry boxes? I found some beautiful ones here but here's a picture to entice you like it did me. Aren't they great? The color is what draws me. Plus, my also ongoing need for the perfect jewelry box. One with lots of little squared compartments so I can keep earrings separate but equal from the rest. But I digress.

In the meanwhile, I know what I want in boxes so I'll just keep on looking and searching and waiting to find perfection. I know they are out there. I know someday my prints will live in their own perfectly colored box on a shelf of my cubby-holed bookshelf. I can't wait for the day when someone asks me for something at HOME, like they do at work, and I can not only find it, but I can find it quickly and I can find last year's version as well. My writings will rest with my writing class information but not all mixed up. Oh no. Even in the box, things will be organized.

I gotta tell ya, I don't know what happened to make me so obsessed with all things neat and in order but then again, if I really think about it and I'm honest, I suppose I've always been this way. And color? Well, I did originally go to college to be an Interior Design major so maybe I've just come full circle 15 years later. I suppose there is something comforting in knowing that I've always been this way and I've just reached the age where my life-long loves can manifest themselves in new and personally exciting ways. Whoa! How did I get here? I was talking about boxes, for crying out loud!

If you have any recommendations for where to buy some - no. I will not make them. Don't have time or energy for that. - then I am all blog ears. Regale me.

Picture Pages

Tired of talking about my house yet? I'm not! :-)

So, things aren't really THAT different in the (insert any last name here except ours!) household. But a blog without photos is like a colorless rainbow. So even though I have yet to snag the digital camera because Mr. T. took it with him when he went down South - thus ruining my chance to steal it for a while without question - I will post camera shots anyway! And it won't get much better than this, folks, until we have furniture.

These are all pre-satellite and so the missing ingredient in my room and the living room are the TVs. I didn't take a picture of the foyer either because truly there is nothing to see there yet.


First stop, coming in from the foyer, the family room. I am really loving the feel of the color in here and so I think I will be here a lot when there is more to sit on than my rocking chair. As you can see, Daughter has found something else to sit on. Excuse her hair. I just took out the braids.


And because the top view wasn't complete, I swung around to get the rest of the room, just in time to catch the Daughter's triumphant ride upon her brother's back.


Now if you make a left here and ignore the laundry room ahead, you'll find my office and a large painting that a friend of mine did of me exactly 10 years ago. I've mentioned him before. You can see some of the puzzles pieces in the corner there and my precious bombe chest on the side. Just ignore the wires. They are a mess but I intend to clean them up and then devise some sort of fabric cover to match whatever else I do in here.


When you come upstairs in my weirdly laid out home, you come to the kitchen first. You can probably see the legs of the stool at our makeshift dining table. Son likes to sit there. Son does not like to sit in the black chair. I have no idea why. Son is a unique soul.


Make a left and here is the unfurnished living room that will someday house a portable fireplace but for now serves as yet another play area for the kids. Much like the family room downstairs that you just saw and their bedrooms which you will see next. Amazingly enough, I am not annoyed by the clutter yet.


There is no other way out of the living room so duck back through the kitchen and make a left to hit Son's room. Yes, it is this messy right now but it's not his fault. I have to get that dresser over here, remember? I'm not enforcing making up the beds yet until we get into a morning routine that is predictable. We're still working out the new bus stop thing for Son who is still a little anxious about going home just to daddy who is not as predictable as Nana was as far as being home. Thankfully with daddy out on comp, we can have some predictability for him until it's time to get unpredictable again.


The kids' bathroom -really, there is nothing to see here. I told Mr. T not to paint it a color so the curtains and stuff can give the color instead. One day there will be curtains and stuff.


Down the hall we have Daughter's territory. She is sleeping in her big, new bed like the big girl she is. It is wonderful. She's seen a few spiders - in her imagination - and has come to spend the rest of the night with us a few times now. But it was usually after 2 a.m. or right when the sun is rising so still not too bad. She loves opening and closing the drawers of that temporary dresser I put in her room. She's much neater than Son right now.



Finally, our room, sans TV as I said already. I took this picture from the bathroom but really, it's a blank slate too so I didn't take a picture of it. No, the bed isn't made but that's OK. I like just lying there and listening to the kids NOT come in my room to bother me because they are still taken by the fact they have 2 floors to run wild in. I hadn't thought of it before this week but 2 floors is new to them. I grew up in 2-story homes with basements and the like but they have been in 1st-floors apartments and ranch homes all their lives. It's no wonder they still follow me everywhere I go in the house and call for me if they don't see or hear me.

I think I have a picture of the outside of the house. I can't recall if I ever posted that or not. Let me check.....

This was before we bought the place, thus the large Dumpster over to the side. But nothing's changed yet. There are pumpkins on the lawn. I already promised 2 of them to my friend/neighbor down the street so sorry, you can't have those. The stepping stones with ladybugs on them are adorable in and of themselves but I don't want them, plus they are broken so they have to go anyway.

I didn't take a picture of the back yard, which everyone says is big, but one day I shall, after I plant flowers and position my new petrified fairy (someone else's wonderful term) in her place under the tree. In the meanwhile, this concludes the tour of my freshly painted and carpeted home. Thanks for visiting!

Home Sweet Home

It's amazing how much a house feels more like a home once a TV gets plugged in. I don't really think that's what happened but my husband seems to think so. I think the TV tuned HIM in all the way to actually living in our house and THAT is what did the trick, but I won't bother trying to explain that to him. He's got the satellite hooked up, the DVR boxes set and we're all happy campers because the kids get their cartoons again, he can watch whatever he wants and I can tape shows to watch whenever I want. Three TVs are hooked up with the potential for a fourth if we ever wanted it. Simply a great deal for everyone. I'm a little tired this morning because of it, however.

We've always had cable - together and before we married. Satellite was always a lure but interfering weather was a concern. We talked to satisfied friends who have "sat" (as the remote control calls it) but since our local cable company harassed the heck out of me when I made an appointment with them then cancelled because I wanted us to really think about it some more, we said satellite it is. That's right, Cablevision. You lost a customer at least partly because you didn't listen when I told you 5 times in a row NOT to call me, I MAY call you. They even came to my house, ya'll!

Anyway, the manual has chapters. Literally. I thin kI made it up to chapter 9 last night. That is how much there is to know about this thing. But when you go through all the trouble of getting this service, you want to know how to operate it. Plus Mr. T wanted HD so there is that little extra feature as well.

Last night we chased the kids to bed then sat in our bed as Mr. T watched TV and pushed buttons while I read the book out loud telling him what it could do. You know most men do not want to give up the remote, but he was as clueless as I was thus happy to have me decode the mysteries of satellite TV watching while he just did what I said.

We browsed the channels; flipped between 1st and 2nd mode; turned on the caller ID feature so Mr. T could call the house and we could watch his name pop up on the screen; we watched House and I paused it, rewound it and jumped back to normal TV again; we played with picture in picture and headed over to the special channel that explains how to use the system. I also checked our bill. Apparently we can do that too. Wouldn't want a person to ever get up to go pay a pesky bill, now would we?

Now mind you, we can't get local stations, as in CT, because local for us is NY so we'll have to listen to the radio for school closings. And I guess if our neighbor's house burned down we would be the last to know. But when the world and all its music is literally at your fingertips like this, I guess you can miss out on one little state.

So Mr. T seems pretty content right now. Content enough to talk about actually staying in the house until he retires which is only another 13 years or so. So we started wondering what we could do to expand the house because after all we only have 3 bedrooms and if we turn my office downstairs into a 4th bedroom, I'd have no place of my own anymore! Ay caramba!

And what if we do have another baby? It'll be a boy (I keep telling him that, though he won't listen to me.) and he could stay in Daughter's room only so long before he'd either have to share with a potentially 11-year-old brother or we'd have to move. Of course staying means we could open up that wall in the family room and put on that deck that the backyard is screaming to have and we could close off that pointless side door. And if we could convince the family that owns the empty lot next door to sell it to us we'd have all the space we needed and get our 2, make it 3-car garage, though I don't know how easy it would be to make changes given the way the house is made and situated. At least not without practically knocking it down and starting all over. And you don't want to overimprove and outprice your house for the neighborhood. Lots of HGTV and TLC taught me that.

But already it's hard to think about moving. It's been a long road and years of renting, though that was by choice and the best choice for the time. Mr. T is imagining his friends hanging out to watch the big screen downstairs. I see the kids in my circle of friends hanging out at my house so my kids will have their friends over to play with. We both like to entertain so bring the noise!

Once you start putting your heart into a place and making it your own...sigh. The wanderer in my Sagittarian heart is used to moving around but my Capricorn husband helps satisfy a desire I've always had to grow roots as well, for the sake of the kids and familiarity, if nothing else. It's just nice to finally be able to relax in the arms of my own little family in our own little piece of the world and dream our little dreams. That, dear Husband, is what make a house feel like home.

Breathe Again

I am home, looking out my window as I type this. It's getting late actually. I'm tired because yesterday I had to wait for Son to get off at his new bus stop. It's the same bus and route actually except now he's the first stop home instead of one of the last ones. Mr. T. had to go out of town with his mother and 2 sisters to his aunt's funeral which left me to be the day and night parent this weekend.

Son and I went back to Nana's and cleared out some more of our straggly stuff as we swept through the living room and dining room, erasing traces of ourselves. We finished clearing out his room - her guestroom/office - and the sofa bed on which he slept for the past 2 1/2 years is now back in its rightful position. I swept and we left to go pick up Daughter. We went back to the house to clean some more and get more straggly stuff. It's amazing how much of that there is. We took food that we bought and bathroom stuff that we owned. We ate and we watched TV for a little while since ours isn't hooked up at home yet. Mr. T was going to do that today before finding out about his aunt.

Today we got up and I laid in bed amazed that no one came bugging me to get up, claiming to be hungry. They are still caught up in the excitement of having their own rooms. Closing the doors and each one knocking to visit the other. The new toys from Son's birthday party last weekend remains strewn on the living room floor. Normally I like things neat and as organized as I can be with 2 little kids. But right now I am relishing the boxes and bags all over the place and could not care less that my unfurnished living room is currently their playroom. Let them enjoy it. It won't last. :-)

We went back to Nana's where I took all the food out of the fridge and took every drawer and shelf there was to the bathroom to soak in the tub while I sprayed the inside of the fridge with cleaner and we went back out to do errands. It's a ranch style house so the bathroom is only steps away form the kitchen. When I came back, it was a breeze - though still a little time consuming - to clean the fridge, sweep up the kitchen, and clean the bathroom, or at least as much as I will do because males are the reason it needs to be cleaned the way it does so males do the cleaning. I just do countertops and mirrors.

I had already washed and dried the tablecloth for the dining room and returned that to its place so I took the old plastic one off the kitchen table and let it be the glass showpiece it was before we showed up so long ago. We ran out and got flowers for the dining room table, left a brief "Thank you for your hospitality (and patience)" note and made haste back to our place. Our pictures are the only indication that children were there recently. My treadmill, boxes of books and dresser are still there but I'm not nearly as concerned about them now. They will find their way here.

Now the tykes are watching videos while I sit blogging and catching up to critiques for my writing group while thinking about artwork for the new puzzles we're making and generally just living in the moment.

Sigh. How sweet it is. Must go do Daughter's hair now.

At Last

It's almost 10 p.m. Do you know where I am? My house. At last. Good night.

Wait, Wait and Wait Some More

I'm not even going to say it. I’m sick of hearing me and you ought to be too. I don't want to go into the next hurdle that popped up to keep me out of my house THIS weekend. I'll only say that I'm starting to take it personally and unless God CLEARLY tells me He's behind this, I WILL take it personally and I will fight it. I will tell you this much, though. Mr. T's aunt died yesterday and he is off to South Carolina on Friday for the funeral. Nothing within anyone's control and yet...

Yes, I know this makes me sound insensitive, but I am self-aware and I will not lie that once I realized what his not being here meant, I was not a happy camper. I’m trying not to take matters into my own hands but so much because I am the impulsive sort and this is probably part of the answer to that prayer for patience that I keep praying knowing that God answers that prayer by sending things to test my patience. I’ve got to stop asking for that! I also know, from my wise young pastor, that waiting can be an active word if you allow it to be. It always was for me.

One of my co-workers made a comment today that made me feel like she was taking things a bit personally and since the comment had to do with birthdays, a lightbulb went off and I looked up her sign. No, I don't let this rule my life but yes, I do think there is something to it; the similarity among people who are born at certain times can be amazing.

As I looked her up I laughed in agreement as I saw the words "harsh criticism and sometimes cold" used to describe her alleged faults. And even though I've read mine a million times, I don't keep all the adjectives in my head so I looked it up. What did it say were my "faults"?

Sagittarius is the ninth sign of the Zodiac and associated with travel and expansion. Individuals born under this sign are thought to have a dynamic, quick witted, intellectual, ethical, humorous, generous, open-hearted, compassionate, and energetic character, but one which is also prone to pridefulness, impulsiveness, impatience, impracticality, and blind optimism. Sagittarians are said to like traveling, getting to the heart of the matter, freedom, laws and meanings, and the general "feel" of things. They do not like off the wall theories, being tied down domestically, being constrained, cooling their heels, and being bothered with details.

Ha! Yes, the “cooling their heels” part truly resonated. See? I’m not crazy. It’s just the traveler in me who is going mad waiting, waiting and waiting some more. Makes me want to eat something.

But God did give me a consolation prize. The company that was going to put my desk together on Monday (yes, it’s that ridiculously complicated) had an opening first thing in the morning so they are coming tomorrow instead. That does help, God. Thanks.

Enough Already!

OK. So the move, as in we will be living there at long last, is supposed to be tonight/tomorrow. We will have birthday party #2 for Son at 4 o'clock at our house, which officially will close all of his birthday celebrations for 2007.

The kids' beds were finally delivered yesterday and they shall be together soon. But I've still got to get my treadmill (which I miss) and my son's baby dresser, plus boxes and boxes of books over to the house. I don't care if stuff is on top of stuff right now. I only want to be done with moving stuff already!

I moved us. Me. I did it. With Mr. T's back being problematic and needing therapy for it and all, I have moved us all by myself. Now that's not a huge deal since we had no real furniture left after having gotten rid of most of it 2 1/2 years ago. But little by little, I got clothes over there, dishes, toys, etc. made the dump runs, made the donation runs, and now I am down to the 2 pieces I want to keep that I can't handle alone. Since we only bought beds for the kids right now, I want Son to use his dresser from his crib set (always meant to be transitioned into adolescence and beyond anyway) so he'll have a place for clothes and keep me from going nuts looking at extra stuff all over the place that could have a home. I had a tall thin dresser from my bedroom long ago and I already brought that over - by myself - for Daughter to use in her room until we get one to match her bed.

The nickle and diming that has to go on when one moves is enough to give a rock a headache. I am a rock so I know. I had a headache all day Monday and I get them so infrequently that it's always my sign of sickness/stress.

We all know one has to "take time" to get what you need, yadda yadda yadda, but aside from me being the impatient sort, we just happen to need way too much all at one time. I've been here and done this when I first moved from home almost 14 years ago so I must admit, doing it again is enough to give me agita (did you know this is a slang term? Word lesson for the day!).

For now, I have to find an able-body male to help me get stuff into my station wagon. Soon, I'll be calling on my girls because that's usually the best way to get things done. I just do not want to rent a truck if I don't have to. Of course Mr. T. has informed me that we are taking the mattress we've been using at his house until we get our own new stuff because after all we just got the kids' beds and we can only do "one thing at a time." OK, can I please shoot the person who came up with that term? I'm about sick of hearing it and I know when folk come to our house tomorrow who haven't been there before or haven't been there in a long time since we painted, etc., I'm going to be hearing it for hours.

"Well, one thing at a time."
"One day at a time."
"One piece at a time."
"One paycheck at a time."

Enough! I get it! Yes, yes, yes, I know, ok? For goodness' sake I can't even post pictures right now until I am in my house to download from the camera onto the computer. I am getting dressed between 2 houses and I am tired. Hear me? T-I-R-E-D.

My job (which yes, I still love it) is insane and has been since December with no sign of letting up - ever. My writing is stalled and my writing group needs me to start submitting some pieces too. My business is waiting on me to work on it because time stops for no woman and we need to start making a profit. We owe crazy taxes this year because it's simply the lot of the middle class to pay for everybody, it seems, and the more you make for your family, the more on the hook you are - unless you have an independent tax person to show you how to avoid the traps. (Lesson finally learned there. Mr. T. found out the hard way that H&R Block is not the way to go and I didn't even have to say I told you so.) I've lost more weight without trying and I can't think about that right now because - say it with me - it's one thing at a time!

Well, I guess I've vented enough for now. I know it's a blessing to have our own home. I know it's a blessing to have a whole family with a mommy and a daddy who can work and work together. I know it's a blessing to have a job in the first place, let alone one you enjoy. I know it's a blessing to have the family and friends who care about us and help us as they can. All of this I know. I'm just ready to be done running back and forth, pulling things from the damp basement that has been home to most of my stuff for way too long; to wake up in my nearly empty room surrounded by stuff that is waiting for me to create a home for it; to sit on my kitchen floor (since I don't know when we'll get the dinette set we agreed on) and make a nice long list of all the stuff we need and want (one day at a time, of course) and just be once again.

It's been a long time coming. 2 1/2 years of preparing and looking and now 3 months of getting the house (and ourselves) ready after finally finding it. I will wrap this up if I have to strap that dresser on my back and carry it over there. Thankfully, that's not too far. Soon and very soon, folk. For now, back to work.

Welcome to My New Home (One of Them!)

It's here! The new blog look is here! Now tell me honestly, what do you think? Was it what you expected? Is it hard to see in your browser, because Firefox beats IE when it comes to this. Don't know why. I think it's Blogger. I had to download Firefox on my home computer just so I can see this properly and I figure why not just do it this way for blogging purposes.

Like the colors? My purple was tres important but the pink worked too so here it stayed. Now who do I have to thank for this? LIZ - the LooneyBin mom herself! This woman worked with a back problem and went back and forth with me as I figured out what I liked. Mind you, I liked what she did practically from the jump which goes to show you just how good she is. I only changed one thing about her original design but this is pretty close to it. Liz, you are the bomb! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Now my logo was also designed by another brilliant woman who also hit the nail on the head the second time around. I don't have her web address on me at this second but as soon as I do, I'll link her name - Ashley Plumly - and you too will be able to partake of her services if you need it. She also revamped my business logo and she did the logo over at Sixuntilme so I do have experience with her and can vouch for her abilities and professionalism. Ashley, I couldn't be more thrilled to have added you to my list of artists. Thank you as well!

So welcome to my new blog home! Just in time for spring!

Now my physical home, because I know you are wondering, is coming along. I plan to be in there, really in there, by March 16th, which is 2 days after my son's 7th birthday and I plan to have his little party at OUR house this year. Last weekend and this weekend I spent hours moving stuff over from my MIL's basement to my house, cleaning things out, throwing things out, donating things, washing things. We're practically down to the few heavy pieces we kept from 2 years ago - my treadmill, my son's baby dresser which isn't babyish at all so he can still use it for now until we get him a new one to match his bed. Daughter found a vanity at the furniture store that she's already claimed. I've been wanting to get her one anyway because it just fits her boisterous personality so I guess we'll have to see about adding that to her furniture too. Man, she is SUCH a girl sometimes!

Mr. T. painted the family room and the carpet was supposed to go in today but he found out Sunday that the room needed a second coat so it probably didn't happen. He's sleeping now and I didn't get a chance to ask about it before he fell asleep. But it'll happen this week if it wasn't today so I'm not concerned. It's the last room to be carpeted and the next to the last room (the penultimate - love the word but can be a little obnoxious to use it sometimes) to be painted but painting the foyer won't stop my show.

The phone company has been called to get everything set up this Friday. We officially have a new home phone number which I sorta selected. I told them what I like in a phone number - repetition, my favorite number 8 - and they delivered a lovely version of that. Quite pleased. Mr. T. showed me a couple of beds he found for the kids and they are good, solid ones at great prices that include the mattress. We'll have to build the sets as we go because it's just too much money to spend at once, especially with the still unresolved tax bill looming over us as well. He also picked a dinette set for the kitchen so we'd have someplace to sit and eat but I didn't like his first choice so we found something else we could both agree on. Don't know when those will show but they are selected and that's good enough for me. So after the trash is out of the foyer and the carpets are cleaned, I'll take real digital photos to display in this my new blog home. You're welcome to visit anytime. Stop by and bring your friends! I'll try my best to keep it as interesting as it looks.

Kill The Cat!

So this weekend I finished painting my office/guest room; 2 coats all by myself, thank you very much! Now to paint the family room and foyer and I’m planning to go tape them off after work throughout the rest of this week and get samples on the walls so we can start painting soon before that new carpet goes in. We still have to put the carpet down in Daughter's room and now it's even more pressing because she and Son were playing in there and he tripped over a closed can of paint (or so I thought) and out it poured all over that old carpet. A big blue spot that looks like the Cat in the Hat paid a visit and melted there. Thank God it was the old carpet, not that paint would have been in there if the new stuff was down.

We had the family room carpet pulled up too to give the room a chance to air out. But we can still smell that stupid cat the former owner had! So since we’re not pulling up the foyer carpet until we’re ready to replace it with flooring, we need to steam clean it to hopefully get the final cat smell out of the house.

I did do about 4 trips back and forth on Saturday and another 4 on Sunday moving stuff out of my mother-in-law’s basement to my house, sorting through packed away toys, lining the cabinets and drawers, washing loads of dishes that haven’t seen the light of day in 2 years and doing loads of clothes at my house AND hers all while making a run to the dump and to Goodwill to get rid of more stuff. I worked from about 8 to 8 both days WITH the kids in tow and I went to work this past snowy Monday very tired but happy to have done that much!

So, any suggestions on how to kill the cat smell? Yuck! So far we're planning to steam clean (with 2 messy kids, we own our own) and someone also suggested I bomb the house. All suggestions welcome!

Slowly But Surely

Well, I've been painting my office after work this week. It is WORK! It is hard WORK! Can you tell I've never painted a wall in my life? Well, I put down the tape and tried to protect all the surfaces. I got out the paintbrush and painted around the window. I poured the lovely Orange Blossom, got out the roller and went for it! Oh the stretching! Good thing I'm tall, that's all I know. It helps.

So it took a while at first but I'm getting the hang of it. I did 2 walls the first night. I started about 7ish and wanted to leave before 9 but it was about 5 after 9 when I finished cleaning out the brushes as I stretched my back. It took forever to get that paint out of the roller, though. Last night I did the other 2 walls. I started at 7 and was done about 8:30. Getting better. Now I have to do a second coat and I'm still trying to figure out the best way to apply it to get those corners and such.

In the meanwhile, the carpet finally made it into Son's room and our room. Looks OK. Empty rooms you don't mind taking your shoes off in. The carpet guy is going to pull up the family room carpet next to help air out that funky cat smell but I'm not sure how long before we carpet that one and Daughter's room. With the $4,000 tax bill we just got hit with - you read it right - I don't know what will happen. First I have to go argue with the tax preparer because I just don't see how it got to be that high with me declaring 0 and Mr. T declaring 0, though he's NOT declaring 0 on his second job. Hopefully, there is a screwup somewhere because I was looking around next for the desk to put in my office. I'm going to be none too pleased if I have to wait to get my desk because we have to take care of this looming, unexpected debt first.

But I digress. When my new blog template is in place (it is AWESOME! Thanks Liz!), I promise to start pulling out the digital camera to take some better photos for you all. These I took using my cell phone and it would probably be OK if the rooms weren't so darn dark right now with the poor lighting. But hey, this weekend will be all about putting on that 2nd coat of paint and hopefully moving over some kitchen stuff too.

We're getting there - slowly but surely!

This is Son's room with a dark grey carpet. We're thinking he will repaint one day so the grey is neutral and should work with anything. Can you see the rocket on the wall? I did that! 4 times! So he's got the stars and moons and suns above and rockets floating in the middle. The lights I bought are in the closet right now but with the carpet down I can at least put them together and see how they light. Too soon to hang them. Need furniture placed first.

Now this is my room. Also a little hard to see with the poor light. Mr. T. picked out the carpet - Dark Earth - and it it is dark but plush too. Green walls, antique white trim. I just have to find some different plates for the outlets and lightswitch because the white ones are too stark and boring. Still not sure what to paint out bathroom and I have to figure out what the exact color scheme will be but green is actually a pretty versatile color so we'll see.

This is my office/guest room as I started painting. You can see the orange as it creeps over the white walls. I decided suddenly to do a really non-involved stencil of puzzle pieces to inspire me as I do business stuff in there. So I cut out painter's tape in puzzle piece shapes and just placed 4 on the wall, one overlapping the other wall and they just flow down. It will hopefully be a little surprise - a pleasant one - when you enter the room. "Orange wall, orange wall, hey! Puzzle pieces! Cool!"

This is the office/guestroom after I painted that same wall. See how the puzzle pieces are covered up? Floating beneath the surface of their ocean of orange paint. I'm so tempted to pull up the tape because I'm dying to see how it turned out but I can't until the second coat goes on. The room is so much warmer now. As much as I hate the painting, it really is a sense of accomplishment. I'm actually looking forward to getting the family room and foyer done.

Are We There Yet?

In a word? No.

But all the painting is done upstairs and carpet is going in Son's and our bedrooms today. Not sure how long it will be to do Daughter's and the family room but hopefully not too long. "We can probably start moving clothes over after the carpet goes in," Mr. T. tells me last night. "Way ahead of you, honey!"

The only reason the kitchen stuff isn't there is because of the paint disaster in the kitchen that I wanted to clean up first. It was paint central all this time and my sink and counters were scary. So I'll go back there tonight and clean around the stove where DH pulled it out to paint and found a mess, as anyone would if you pulled your stove out of it's niche.

"Do you like the color?" he asked.
"You mean the non-color in the kitchen? It's lovely."

Really. Off-white - OK, I think it's really closer to eggshell or some silly whitish name like that - is NOT a color but it's a kitchen and I don't mind the light walls. After all, I had him paint Son's room the lovely blue and purple (per Son's request) and Daughter's the ever bright yellow and dark lavender and I let him choose the color for our room because I wasn't sure what I wanted so he picked a green that I can live with. Plus my office is going to be Orange Blossom, which means orange just as you think, and that made him cringe but I don't care. It'll be hot. Plus, the foyer and living room will probably be either Cafe Royal or Roxbury Caramel (shades of rich brown) so what's one little whitish kitchen (and living room and kid's bathroom and maybe our bathroom too) in the midst of all that sweet color?

I think Mr. T is tired of painting and I don't blame him. I'm doing my office myself so I can get it done and move some stuff there too.
"It's expensive!" he complained.
"Hey! We're changing carpet and painting walls. That all we NEED to do. We have a new house. Don't need reno so painting, no matter how expensive the cans, will always be the cheapest thing we can do. When we're done, we're done," I assured him.
He simply nodded and looked up at the very high ceiling above the stairs that lead upstairs.
"I don't know," I responded, reading his mind. "Let's not think about it. Let's just do what we can and get the heck out of your mother's house!"

So, we're going to leave the darn brown carpet on the stairs and in the foyer for now. It's not horrible. We want flooring in the foyer so we'll do it when we can. We'll clean the carpet in the living room too since it's not horrible either but knowing me, I'll find a rug somewhere at some point to help usher in color since we aren't painting there. But the rest is pretty much done and I am going to start moving stuff this week.

Now the challenge is to do it on the downlow so MIL can't see it. I know it's mean but I want to worry her. I want her to think we'll never leave. See, I've heard her say to my BIL, "I don't know when they're leaving. They're not even packing. I think they're comfortable." And that shows you how in tune she is to people. If she wants to know, ASK! But she doesn't, she talks about it to others instead of going to the source and that's not surprising. She always has. So instead of saying anything I want her to suddenly look up and go, "Hey! Where's all your stuff?" Really, lady. Do I strike you as someone who wants to live with you FOREVER? Please don't flatter yourself! There is nothing like your own space.

I just can't wait. Pictures to come.

Change is Afoot

I am anxious. The good thing is my blog redesign is coming along and my new logo is nearly done. I love to just look at it. Makes me want to write! But you can't see it until it's done. Sorry.

The other not-so-good-but-I-can-live-with-it thing is yesterday I went in to pay the penultimate statement on a small business loan my partner and I have with a local social service agency. I told the director why I wasn't at the holiday party she threw last month. I had asked someone else to relay the message but apparently it didn't make it to her.

"You bought a house?! Oh my goodness! Are you happy?"

"Absolutely! We've been living with my mother-in-law for the last two years. I'm VERY happy! No slight to her but after I got out of college, the last thing I wanted to do was live with people anymore."

I explained how we weren't officially in the house yet. Still need to finish the painting and change the carpets and we get mattresses at the very least. "Do you have air mattresses maybe?"

"Not even that, though we should consider it."

She reminded me of how much I just want to be in already. I feel a little anxiety because we just aren't moving fast enough for me. Yet we can't go any faster than we are going because paint is not free and neither are carpets and mattresses. We still have to take this one paycheck at a time and with the first mortgage payment coming due, the priority now is for Mr. T to get whatever part of the money he has yet to get and get that payment off. Then we have to focus on a sewer bill that we walked into with an overdue balance because apparently Former Owner didn't pay her part last year and she must have known because the bills are based on the months to come, not the ones that passed. She would have gotten that baby last June or July. So I called our lawyer and he took care of it. Whew. Sometimes, you gotta love those lawyers!

Mr. T is the slow and deliberate sort. He takes his time making decisions, though not to the point of losing out - most times. I think he will always regret not making a bid on the first house we both liked almost instantly. It took months to find that one but he decided a month after we saw it that he wanted to put a bid on it. I would have - and should have - pressed the issue when we first saw it if he hadn't kept calling it a doll house, making me think he didn't REALLY want it. (Of course the house we bought, he still calls a doll house. He's right.) So we lost out on that one for good. Still, we got the better end of the stick.

But normally, he is slow to act and it pays off for him because he always finds great deals. This house was no exception. So I do try to gauge myself because I, as opposed to him, usually move faster than I ought. I've tamed that over the years and living with him has tamed it even more - to our benefit - but I haven't squashed that spirit because my impetuousness gets him moving on things while his caution moves us along safely. I'm trying to chill and focus on the things I can physically do to distract myself while he prepares the way. (Can you see the gladiators that just popped up in my head?) Gotta let a man be a man sometimes, you know? Yet I am dreaming of my treadmill. It's been inaccessible for two years and I miss it. At this point the upstairs of the house will be done being painted but there is still downstairs, which hopefully will go much faster since there are 3 rooms to paint compared to the 6 upstairs and way fewer doors to navigate around. Now that I think of it, I suppose the job is really 2/3 done. OK, I feel a little better now. Plus, before I left to drop off the Daughter and go to work, I heard him calling his buddy to get the house measured for carpet. No need to say another word. The man hears what I say without me having to say it and I do love that about him.

Unimportant Babble

Just wanted to share my frustration with wanting to buy this piece I saw in Home Goods yesterday - which is why I don't like window shopping because you always find things to buy when you don't have the money for it. I had never been in Home Goods before because I suspected I would like something that I could not afford right then and buying furniture was not a priority while we were looking to buy a house. So this piece is on hold right now by someone name Pat who was able to hold it without buying it due to something the other store manager must have been willing to allow when normally they do not. I'll just have to go back tomorrow to see if it's free again. Home Goods has it for $300. I found it online at another place in NC for $665. That $300 difference is more than enough reason to love Home Goods. I have a question in to one more NC furniture store but it's worth about $800 so I don't expect the price to be much less than that $665 I got already.

This little baby picks up the colors of my soon-to-be office/guestroom and though I was headed for white furniture before, when I saw this I changed my mind.

Mr. T. and I expect to take a long time decorating our place because after we get the much needed beds for everyone, we only plan to buy things we love, love, LOVE. And my taste is for really weird, artistic looking things I could stare at all day long but it's still functional. That's what this is and darn it, I had to find it when I wasn't looking!

Here's hoping Pat doesn't come through.

UPDATE: Heard from the second furniture store in NC that has this. It would cost me $487 plus $80 delivery for a total of $567. $100 less. That's something. So I needed to be sure about the CT version first. I got up this morning with it on my mind. I got Daughter and I out as early as I could. I was determined to go to the store before work to check on it and I got there 2 minutes before they opened. It was there. It was free. It is mine. Save $237-365. I'm a happy camper.

Weekend Warrior

This weekend was all about the walls. OK, so "warrior" is probably not the best word to use but I was proud of myself nonetheless for adding my own little personal touches to the kids' rooms. This one is Son's room. I'm stencling stars on the wall along with 2 suns, 2 moons and soon to be rockets with a planet or two thrown in for balance. I did the suns and moons first. I bought stencil paint for those so I could do some colors we didn't already have from the walls. That paint is dry! I hate it because it's hard to work with. I never knew what it was like before. Now I do and won't be going that way again. Nonetheless, I did what I could and the rockets are going to be done with wall paint for sure. I got a sun and a moon in the center of each of the four walls and the stars will run between them. It's hard to see in this picture but this center image is where I am so far. It took me about 3 hours to do this much. Had to stop. I'll go back tonight and see if I can at least finish the stars.

And here is a closeup of a moon and a sun. I like them. Or rather, I can live with them and Son will too - until he discovers some new theme one day he'll want played out on his walls.



Now Daughter's walls we're easier. I used a stamp to do her butterflies and it's not as messy and time consuming. I did hers in about an hour but all I'm doing is that. I'm not adding other bugs on the wall, unlike Son's more elaborate job. But those butterflies are beautiful, if I say so myself, and really make it look like a little girl's room. It does cut off the height of a wall, if you're concerned about things like that, but I love standing there and looking at them. Mr. T. likes them too though he acts like he needs sunglasses every time he goes into the room. Daughter was looking at a Pottery Barn Kids catalog with me and decided she wanted everything in there - and for her room to be pink. I think I'll just ignore that request for now.



So tonight I'll go back and get some more stars done. As much as I am enjoying the whole thing, I'll be glad when we can just move in already. Mr. T. is way more of a deliberate person than I am and I know he wants things a certain way first. I think I'll just have to keep myself busy shopping!

House Work

I know, I know. Another week and no writing. I've been busy. I swear! Oh, and I've been sick too, thanks to my daughter. Plus yesterday, Mr. T. turned 38. It's been a lot. But I'm better now, things have quieted down and I am back on the run.

Last weekend I continued cleaning. This time I had to hit the fridge and cabinets but I still need to do the cabinets below. I was too tired to do that last time. (There's some more behind me and on the wall adajacent to that fridge.)
See down there? This is me cleaning the fridge. It took me an hour and a half and it wasn't even that bad! Imagine if we had to move in after someone who didn't care! I can't imagine it. It makes me shudder. Next image.

So there's also the painting. See here the question is, "How does this purple look next to Daughter's newly yellow walls? Or should we stick with lavender?" And "Gee, this blue isn't too dark is it? And this purple with that?" Sounds like a rainbow but my kids picked the colors and I love color so I was fine with it. Mr. T says to leave the kitchen white, however.












"It would be too much color!" he says.

Pish posh! There's no such thing!
But in the spirit of compromise, I say, "Cool."

"And the living room. We won't paint the living room," he adds.

Now cut that out! We need color there!

"We'll let the furniture and things add the color."

Sigh. Fine.

I like change too much to disagree with that logic. Besides, we still WILL paint the foyer downstairs and the family room and my office/guest room a wonderful pumpkin color so I can be content. Plus we still are trying to figure out what color to do our room. I mistakenly voiced some thoughts on green and I HATE green and now Mr. T. is looking into that.(This is the empty, colorless room where my office/guestroom will be.)

I told him, "You must pick a shade that complements me."

"What?"

"You never heard of that? The woman must look good in her own room. That's the rule."

He rolled his eyes but to his credit, he's following my lead on this anyway because though he's never said it, I think he thinks it's what a woman should or wants to do - make their own house a home - so he's been very open to everything I've said. Thankfully, I married a man who cares about his appearance and the appearance of things around him so I will get honest feedback and I know we won't have a thing in there we don't both love, provided it affects both of us that is.

Anyway, this weekend, it's all about getting the butterflies onto Daughter's walls. Just a simple stencil to border the ceiling. Already got a lavender switchplate with butterflies on it and lavender electrical outlet covers should have arrived in the mail by now. Now to find new closet knobs and I'll be cool until I start getting the other stuff for her. Son, on the other hand, needs a galaxy and I have stenciling to do to meet that demand as well. Never done this in my life, mind you, but I'll trust my artistic abilities with this one.
Then we'll head off to Ikea the next weekend because we saw some lighting there that he liked. Plus I saw a lovely ceiling light on their website that I think will work as well. And a wall rocket too. (It's a storage thing. Surely you understand.) I had never been there before now, believe it or not. The place is confusing but CHEAP! Great day, how cheap! Too cheap for the adult furniture, as far as I am concerned. Good transitional living type stuff and good for kids so for the kids we'll go. (And I'm sure there will at least be some fun stuff for accenting rooms too.) By the time we get done, he ought to be quite happy. And I'm happy for him, every kid should have a place where their imagination can explode all over the walls and no one will care. They finally get theirs.

This is me - in the kids' bathroom - signing off until later!

Bad Blogger

Bad, bad blogger!

"Where have you been, Monica," you ask. "How are we supposed to keep up with you if you don't blog?!"

Valid questions, my friends. You want to know what happened since I last blogged on the 15th? (My gosh, has it really been almost 2 weeks! I'm so sorry!)

Dec. 18 - I turned 36. They had bagels in my honor at work. The kids jumped me when I came home that night because I had a present - ice cream cake and the new BabyPhat perfume. I drove Mr. T's car that day and unfortunately he left the sample cards on the seat of his car so I wasn't shocked but I was happy to see it was bought for ME! :-)

Dec. 21 - We learned who our Secret Santas were at work. We had a $100 limit (don't gasp. There's a reason.) because our holiday dinner had to be postponed until Januaryu so the boss upped the limit and said to expense it. Sweet. So I received this lovely entertaining set - red tray, plates, canape knives, candles, it's really beautiful - and I guessed my SS on the first try. We had pizza, salad, chicken fingers and thick cheese sticks. It was fun.

Dec. 22 - Son sang a duet with a classmate for the holiday concert. Well, maybe it wasn't a duet per se. They were the leads. He sang a solo last time - a full-fledged solo - and listening to him again this time, hands in his pockets as he leaned into the mike to confidently sing his part, I'm amazed at how it makes me emotional. I couldn't be prouder of him. I wonder what it is that makes me so proud of who he is and yet not capable of telling him that enough. The older he gets, the harder it gets and yet he clearly craves it. The boy stood in front of my bedroom door on Sunday and counted. He didn't call me or come in. Just counted - out loud - for a long time. I woke up on 289. He still writes me love notes so I guess I'm still a good mommy overall.

Dec. 23 - Went to start cleaning the new house. Mr. T and I are still stopping each other saying, "Hey! We've got a house!" We're very much caught up in what color to paint all the rooms. Daughter gets yellow and lavender. We just don't know whether to make it lavender with yellow accents or the other way around. We're afraid all yellow will heighten her already vibrant personality but we think we really want to see it that way. Plus I'll find a butterfly stamp so I can stamp lavender butterflies at the top of her walls near the ceiling. Son wanted purple but I was afraid a boyish purple would be too dark. So he said blue. I told him I'd go for blue and try to create a purple and white stripe on the wall you see when you enter the room. Good luck to me. Could have been worse, though. He wanted a checkerboard pattern at first and knowing me, I would have tried it. My office/guest room will be a lovely harvest color - think a fall orange. That is the one room I had dreams about. We still don't know what to do with our room, the kitchen, the kids' bath, the family room or the living room we are currently calling the Sky Box. (It's a raised ranch and that room is upstairs on the same floor as the kitchen and bedrooms. The last owner used it as a dining room but it's hard to know what to do with it because makig it a designated dining room jsut seems like a waste.) In our room and our bathroom, I want something relaxing but Misted Green (See Pottery Barn color palette) keeps coming to me and I don't know if I want to be surrounded by green. I'm not actually too fond of that color. Anyhow, we had hoped to start painting that day but the store was closed early. So this weekend we get to work.

Dec. 24 - I had bought all I intended to buy for my immediate people - Hubby and 2 kids - and wrapped them all up so this day, I just watched movies with Mr. T. My Super Ex-Girlfriend - Eh. OK. Twin Towers - better than I expected. The kids watched Over the Hedge and Ant Bully, both of which they saw in the theater but had to see again. Of the two, I'd probably recommend Ant Bully over the other one. I think it's because so many cartoons these days aren't as scenic as they used to be - remember The Prince of Egypt? - and at least I felt like I was going to different places in that movie even though it was the same house and same front yard. Just from a very different perspective.

Dec. 25 - Breakfast at the sister- and brother-in-law's house. They do it every year and it's nice. His son and daughter come with their families and we're from her side and it's one big, happy United Colors of Benetton ad that day. Well, OK, just 3 colors, but close enough. Then we go home so the kids can tear through their stuff and I can hopelessly try to keep up with all the wrapping being strewn about that I so carefully put on the boxes the days before. But they felt like it was a neverending bounty of gifts. I'm happy they were happy. And oh, by the way, yes I am eating. I'm just trying to maintain weight but dieting right now is just insane.

Dec. 26th - Ugh. Back to work. Still love my job. Don't get me wrong. But why don't we all just take this week off? I know the grocery stores have to be open and places like that but really, who wants to work right now?

Dec. 28th - TODAY! Got to get home to take Daughter to get her hair done. We both had appointments for Saturday but my girl would be doing us both because her girl is on vacation this week and this girl just didn't want to face it. Besides, the cable guy is coming on Saturday and both of us in the hairdresser is sure to keep us in there all day. I want to be able to be there when the cable/internet/phone is hooked up. We're going for the triple package so I'm very excited to finally have cable internet plus I opted to get their DVR system so I can finally tape all the shows I like to watch but I'm often too tired to stay up for.

The new year is shaping up quite nicely so far. And this is my life.

How's yours?